Confrontation II: the Reckoning
by ack1308
Summary: While embarking on therapy-mandated activities, Taylor and Sophia literally run into someone on the Boardwalk. This will have far-reaching consequences. (This is the sequel to my other fic, Confrontation.)
1. Chapter 1

**Confrontation II: the Reckoning**

* * *

 _A Worm Fanfic_

* * *

 _1) This story is set in the Wormverse, which is owned by Wildbow. Thanks for letting me use it._

 _2) I will follow canon as closely as I can. If I find something that canon does not cover, then I will make stuff up. If canon then refutes me, then I will revise. Do not bother me with fanon; corrections require citations._

 _3): I will accept any legitimate criticism of my work. However, I reserve the right to ignore anyone who says "That's wrong" without showing how it is wrong, and suggesting how it can be made right. Posting negative reviews from an anonymous account is a good way to have said reviews deleted._

* * *

 _This is a sequel to the fanfic_ _ **Confrontation**_.

* * *

Part One: An Unexpected Encounter

* * *

"I understand, Taylor, that Sophia has revealed to you the essence of why your previous best friend turned on you." It was almost a statement, almost a question. Taylor found herself almost drawn into a response. Mrs Yamada was _very_ good at this.

"Uh, yes, she did," she agreed. Glancing across to where Sophia sat, she went on. "It's got to do with the ABB attacking Emma and her father, where Emma was traumatised. Sophia got to her when she was vulnerable and convinced her of her bullshit way-of-life philosophy -"

"Hey, it's not all bullshit," protested Sophia. "It's about the strong and the weak." She paused, and added as an afterthought, "and you're pretty damn strong yourself. You want to say it doesn't exist, you want to give away your power, never use it again?"

"If I was just using my powers to hurt people, I'd deserve to lose them, yeah," retorted Taylor.

"I was using mine to _help_ people." Sophia's tone was defensive.

"Okay, everyone take a breath," Mrs Yamada's voice cut through the gathering tension. "Taylor, Sophia, I want you to do a mental exercise for me. Can you do that?"

"Yes, Mrs Yamada," Taylor responded. Sophia just nodded; the 'bullshit way-of-life philosophy' comment seemed to have hit a nerve.

"Good. All right, Taylor, I want you to think of five situations in which a strong-versus-weak philosophy would be a good idea. Sophia, I want you to think of five situations where it would be a bad idea."

Each of them looked startled and somewhat discomfited. "But I don't _believe_ that," protested Taylor, about one second before Sophia could express almost exactly the same sentiment.

"So stretch your mind. Try to imagine a situation where what you currently believe doesn't apply." She looked at both of them. "Taylor?"

Taylor blinked. "Oh, uh, in a beehive. If bees are hatched weak or malformed, they are destroyed before they can weaken the rest of the hive."

"Very good. Sophia?"

Sophia's forehead was sheened with sweat. "Uh, shit. Sorry. Um. Parents and kids. Parents are supposed to support and educate their kids, not just treat them any old how."

"Also good," Jessica praised her. "Tell you what, we're getting close to time, so I'll leave the rest of them for your next joint session. But in the meantime, I've got a homework assignment for the two of you."

"Homework?" Taylor didn't like the sound of that.

"I thought this was therapy, not school," Sophia objected.

"If you don't learn from therapy, it does nothing for you," Mrs Yamada pointed out. "This is a joint activity for the both of you."

"Okay," Taylor responded cautiously. "What is it?"

* * *

"This is the _worst_ idea in the world." Sophia leaned on the Boardwalk rail, her feet unsteady under her, for good reason.

Taylor finished fastening her own roller-blades and stood up. Unsteadily, she set herself in motion, wobbled over to Sophia, and grabbed the rail beside her. "Apparently Mrs Yamada didn't think so."

"But _roller-blades?"_ Sophia's voice rose. "Somehow she knew that neither one of us knows how to rollerblade."

"So we're supposed to figure it out, and teach each other. I guess that was the 'joint' part of 'joint activity'."

"But I've never used roller-blades before," groused Sophia.

"Well, nor have I."

"Well, you're staying up a lot better than me, which is _totally_ unfair."

"Oh, I used to go ice skating with Emma when we were kids. She was always better at it than me, but I could stay upright at least."

There was a pause before Sophia spoke next. "Uh, about Emma ... "

Taylor stood upright and let go of the rail. "What about Emma?" Her voice was noticeably colder.

"I, uh, I'm sorry for giving her the idea to bully you."

" _After_ the three of you bullied me for so long."

Sophia winced at the cutting tone. "Yeah, well, it's not something that's easy to stop. But for what it's worth, I _am_ sorry."

"Mainly because you got caught."

She didn't bother denying it. "But also because of what I did. And because now I know what an idiot I was. You could have killed me a dozen times over once you got your powers. There's weak and there's strong, and then there's _stupid_. That was me."

"And still you did it."

"Yeah, well, I'm saying sorry, okay?"

Taylor moved away from the rail, brow furrowed in concentration. "Still doesn't give me the why of it."

"I _told_ you why!"

"No, you told me why you told Emma your philosophy, so she could be strong. Doesn't explain why you picked on me. Give me your hand."

Sophia extended a hand; Taylor took it. "You were there. Emma needed to compare herself, to be able to prove to herself that she was getting stronger." She let herself be guided away from the rail.

"Put your feet like mine. Your weight farther forward. So how long have you been in the Empire Eighty-Eight?"

Sophia jerked her head around to stare at Taylor. The motion destroyed her already-precarious balance; her feet went out from under her, and she landed hard on her butt. Taylor nearly went over too, but managed to skate in a half-circle and retain her equilibrium. She looked down at Sophia, still gripping her hand. "You okay?"

"You did that on purpose!" Sophia glared up at her.

"Well, I didn't mean to make you fall over, but you have to admit, it _was_ kind of funny." Taylor's mouth quirked, but she didn't laugh out loud, as much as she wanted to.

"What the fuck did you mean, calling me a Nazi?" demanded Sophia, trying to get her feet under her.

Taylor braced herself, centring her weight over the skates. "Well, that's what you were doing. Back in World War Two, the Nazis needed to get the people on side, so they invented a common enemy that had been there all the time." She paused, and grunted as Sophia came to her feet.

"You're talking about the Jews." Sophia stared at her. "That's why they hated them, why they killed them?"

"Sure." Taylor shifted her weight, moved around Sophia a little. "Watch your feet. See how I move mine? Move yours the same way. The Jews and other minorities were an easy target; a lot of people already disliked them. They just made it official. You made me your target so that Emma could have someone to look down on, to make herself feel better."

"Fuck." Sophia moved her feet carefully. Her natural athleticism, and years of experience of rooftop-running, were coming to her rescue; she seemed to be moving more easily now. "And the Nazis did this shit first?"

"It's what they do," Taylor told her bluntly. "So how does it feel to be a Nazi?"

Sophia glared. "Stop calling me a Nazi!"

Taylor glared back. "Then stop _being_ one!"

There was a long pause, then Sophia ventured, "I don't hate Jews."

"It's not _about_ race hatred," Taylor explained patiently. "It's about setting yourself up as being better than others. Master race bullshit. Strong versus weak. Predator versus prey. Ubermensch versus subhumans. All part of the same bullshit package."

They began to move off down the Boardwalk, Sophia still a little unsteady, while Taylor moved with much more confidence.

"So why race?"

Taylor looked around; Sophia was watching her feet carefully. "Sorry?"

"Why race?" asked Sophia again. "Why use that as a point to attack them on?"

"It's a visible thing. They look different, therefore they are different. It's a short step from 'different' to 'wrong'."

"And that's how I was treating you. Like they used to treat people like me."

"And how the Empire wants to keep doing even today, yeah."

She turned her head to look at Taylor; for the first time ever, her eyes were full of pain. "Shit, Taylor, I -"

"Look out!"

* * *

The collision could have been avoided, even at the last moment, but Sophia misjudged and went right instead of left. The young man in her path went the same way; they went down in a tangle of limbs. Taylor nearly had a collision of her own, but she leaned one way, the teenage girl in front of her leaned the other, and they brushed past each other.

Taylor skated in a circle and came back. "Geez, I'm sorry," she exclaimed. "Are you guys okay?"

The two on the ground were still trying to get themselves sorted out; the other girl, instead of helping, was pointing and cackling with mirth. "Holy shit, that was awesome!"

"Shut up, Aisha," her male companion retorted, pushing himself to a seated position. "How about you help, instead of laughing?"

He was, Taylor belatedly realised, quite muscular. Very muscular indeed. Sophia looked up into his face. "Hi," she murmured winsomely. "I'm Sophia." Taylor blinked; she had _never_ heard Sophia use that tone before.

"Uh, hi," he replied. "Brian. You okay?"

"Oh, uh, my ankle's a bit sore," she prevaricated. "Not sure if I'll be able to stand on it."

"Well, let's have a look at it, then," he stated. Not moving from where he was, he took her ankle and started probing it with what looked like strong, capable hands. Taylor felt a stab of jealousy; _no-one ever offered to check_ _ **my**_ _ankle for injury when I fell over. Especially not a hunk like that._

"Hi," the girl announced herself, extending a hand. "Aisha. That big lunk's my brother Brian."

"Taylor. That's Sophia." Taylor shook the girl's hand; she and her brother were both at least as dark-skinned as Sophia herself, but Aisha sported a purple streak through her hair. She also wore a microscopic top, denim shorts, and luridly-coloured tights; not too bad for the Boardwalk, but Taylor suspected that this was her daily wear anywhere she went.

Breaking into Taylor's thoughts, Aisha tilted her head at where Brian was still checking out Sophia's ankle, their heads close together. When she spoke, her voice was low enough that neither Brian nor Sophia caught it. "Smooth."

So she'd seen it too. _Twisted ankle, my ass._ "Him or her?"

Aisha smirked. "Yes."

 _Okay, yeah, her I like._

"Well, it doesn't _look_ damaged, and there's no swelling that I can detect," Brian decided, although Taylor noticed that he didn't take his hands off of Sophia's ankle. "But you might want to take the weight off of it for a while."

"Help me to a bench?" asked Sophia, giving him the puppy-dog eyes treatment.

"Sure, okay." He wriggled out from under her, and helped her to her feet, making it look effortless. They made the trek across to one of the benches that dotted the Boardwalk, and she let him assist her in sitting down. "Here, I'll help you get these off." He bent over the fastenings on the roller-blades. "They'll just be in the way, and you probably don't want to be on them for the rest of the day."

"Thanks," Sophia told him, her gratitude sounding genuine. _"I_ didn't want to come out rollerblading, seeing that I've only just really started to learn how, but Taylor _insisted,_ and we're besties, so I can't really say no to her … "

Taylor's eyes opened with with outrage. _It wasn't_ _ **my**_ _idea!_ But she couldn't really say as much in front of the brother and sister, not without raising more questions. So she controlled the reaction, although she wasn't certain that Aisha hadn't caught it.

Brian looked up at her after removing the second set of roller-blades. "I get that you're friends and all," he noted, mild censure in his voice, "but maybe you shouldn't push Sophia too fast on this sort of thing. You're obviously better at it than she is, and you can see how easy it is to get hurt if you're not careful."

 _Oh, how right you are,_ Taylor wanted to say, but didn't. Just for a moment, while the other two were looking away from her, Sophia grinned at Taylor then stuck her tongue out at her. This time, Taylor controlled her expression of outrage, and instead forced contrition into her voice and features.

"Yeah, sorry. It's obvious that Sophia needs a lot more work on this sort of thing before she's going to get anywhere." _Hah, see how you like that._

Taylor had seen Sophia Hess on the running track; she had a sort of grim determination to her. A drive to win, that had stood her in good stead, time and again. Of course, Taylor had been secretly cheering on the other contestants in the races, given her personal history with Sophia, but she was well aware of the girl's competitive streak. So she noted the glint in Sophia's eye when she shot that barb. _Let's see if that gets you on your feet again._

But instead, Sophia changed the subject. "Thanks for the save, Brian. I'm sure things would've turned out a lot worse than they did if I hadn't run into you. So are you and your sister just hanging out down here on the Boardwalk, or were you going anywhere in particular?"

Taylor counted herself as being socially oblivious in most cases, but even she could spot the subtext here; _wherever you're going, could I come along too?_ She wasn't entirely certain whether it was to do with procuring an excuse to avoid the rollerblading, to spend more time with the eminently hunky Brian, or a combination of the two.

 _I have to admit, he does make for some very nice eye candy. Mind you, if he was feeling up_ _ **my**_ _ankle like he was with hers, I'd probably spontaneously combust on the spot._

Brian didn't answer immediately, and Taylor hoped that the reply would be in the negative; they really had to get back to working on their rollerblading and their issues. As nice as Brian was to look at, he would ultimately be a distraction and an impediment to free conversation.

Unexpectedly, it was Aisha who replied. "Hey, yeah, why not. Big bro was gonna take me to see a movie. He can take one of you two, or even both. I'll just go do my own thing."

She started to move away; Brian cleared his throat. "Aisha."

"What?" She was still walking away, but more slowly.

"Get back here." His tone was mild, but there was steel under it.

"You're no fun." Her clothing contained nothing with flounces on it, but she managed to flounce back to them anyway. "Come on, bro. You've got a couple of real live girls to talk to. You don't need me as well."

"Dad said to keep an eye on you and don't let you wander off."

"Dad can go bite my -"

"Dad being willing to take you in is the only reason you're not at Mom's."

Taylor glanced at Sophia; she was obviously listening to everything, just as Taylor was, and was probably equally lost. Sophia cleared her throat. "Uh, Brian?"

Startled, he glanced at her. "Uh, sorry, family argument. Shouldn't have aired that in front of you."

"You hear one family argument, you've heard them all," she pointed out. "I'd love to see a movie with you." A sly glance in Taylor's direction. "Taylor can watch Aisha if they don't want to come along."

 _Nice try. I wonder what Brian would think of me putting your tracker bracelet back on to leave you with him._ The bracelet, temporarily removed for the purposes of rollerblading, currently resided in Taylor's pocket.

"Sorry, no can do. We're sticking together on this one. Just remember that we've got that homework to get done after you've had your movie date, Sophia. Mrs Yamada's pretty strict."

From the sour look that flashed across Sophia's face, she'd made her point. Sophia could duck out of therapy-mandated activities for so long, but not forever. Taylor _would_ get her back up on roller-blades, and _would_ finish that talk with her.

"Hey!" protested Aisha. "What about me? Don't I get a say in this?"

"Yeah, you do," Brian told her. "You get to come into the movies with us, or you get to go home to Dad's. Your choice."

The younger girl grimaced. "You suck."

"Doubtless. Your choice?"

Aisha rolled her eyes. _"Fine._ Let's go to the movies."

"Look, if you don't want to go to the movies with us -" began Taylor.

"Nah, nah," Aisha assured her. "It's not you, it's him. You got a big brother?"

"No," Taylor told her.

"I do," Sophia put in.

"Then you know what I mean," Aisha told Sophia. "Big brothers can be such douches, you know? Always sticking their noses in."

"Oh, don't I know it," sighed Sophia; Taylor couldn't tell if she was serious or not. _"Other_ people's big brothers are just fine though." She shot Brian a mischievous grin.

Aisha rolled her eyes again. "Wow, come on, let's get to the movies already. I'm getting diabetes here."

"Shush, Aisha," Brian ordered, ignoring her raised middle finger. "Sophia, how does your ankle feel?"

"Better." She rose and gingerly tested it. "Still a bit tender, but I can walk on it."

"Great. You got shoes?"

"In my backpack." She indicated the pack that she wore, almost a twin to the one that Taylor had on. It was how they'd gotten the 'blades to the Boardwalk in the first place.

Taylor had an idea. "Hey, Aisha, can you rollerblade?"

"A bit, why?"

Taylor turned to Sophia. "Can Aisha use your blades? We can get some exercise in while you two slowpokes are trudging to the movies."

Sophia barely hesitated before handing them over. "Don't break them. Or better yet, _do_ break them. I'm beginning to hate the sight of them."

"Yeah, yeah, good try," Taylor told her. Sophia wrinkled her nose at her.

The roller-blades fit Aisha reasonably well; she was obviously as rusty as Taylor had been when she first got back on to them, but within moments was moving easily. "Okay, this is cool," she admitted, sweeping around in a curve and getting back to them.

"Let me guess," Sophia challenged. "You used to go ice-skating when you were a kid?"

"Nah," Brian replied. "We had a roller rink near our place for years before it shut down."

"Is it just me, or does everyone _but_ me know how to rollerblade?"

Sophia's question was probably rhetorical, but Brian answered her anyway. "I don't know how, either."

Aisha grinned. "But he does know kung fu."

"What, really?" asked Taylor, startled. _He_ _ **is**_ _built, and moves like he can take care of himself, but an actual martial artist?_

"Not really," he replied. "Not one of the official styles, anyway. I'm more of a mixed martial arts fan. I basically take what I need from different styles."

"That's how Bruce Lee did it," Sophia noted. "I dabble a bit myself. Maybe we can spar, sometime."

"When your ankle's better," he pointed out. "Movie first, sparring later?"

"Movie first, sparring later," she agreed.

"Is _that_ what they're calling it these days?" jibed Aisha. Sophia took a moment to get it; her jaw dropped in shock. Taylor grinned and gave Aisha a high-five.

"Aisha, enough. Okay, we should get going if we're going to get there in time," Brian noted.

* * *

They made their way down the Boardwalk; Brian and Sophia walked side by side, chatting, while Taylor and Aisha skated up and down. Taylor found that while she was the faster, due to her longer legs, Aisha was quicker on the turns, and more agile overall.

When they got to the movie theatre, Taylor stored her roller-blades in her backpack, replacing them with the sandals she had been carrying; Aisha handed the borrowed 'blades back over to Sophia. The movie turned out to be an Earth Aleph action thriller, depicting dubious-looking aliens and square-jawed human protagonists. Taylor sat between Sophia and Aisha, with Brian on the other side of Sophia; Aisha finished her own popcorn, stole some of Taylor's to throw at Sophia and Brian, and snarked about the movie the whole way through. Taylor laughed so hard that she missed most of the plot points, but she didn't care.

 _This is what I've been missing. This is_ _ **fun.**_

* * *

The sun was getting low over Captain's Hill when they emerged into the open air once more.

"So yeah, that was good," Sophia told Brian. "Wanna do it again sometime?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I'd like that. Aisha?"

The younger girl considered that. "Sure. You guys are cool to hang with. I guess I could bring myself to stand your company some more." She nodded at Taylor's backpack. "Especially if you bring roller-blades."

"Yeah, well, I've got to get you back to Dad's soon, so we've got to get going."

"Wait." Sophia pulled out her phone. "Get your number?"

"Good idea." Brian got his out as well.

"I'll get it too, just in case." Taylor got her Wards phone out, thankful that it wasn't outwardly different from a standard phone.

Numbers were exchanged; Taylor got Aisha's number as well. As abrasive and sarcastic as the girl could be, she was also fun to be around. _And her home life is obviously not the best._

"Well, we'll see you around," Brian observed, starting off up the Boardwalk. Aisha, walking backward beside him, grinned, stuck her tongue out, crossed her eyes, and waved.

"See you later," Taylor responded, trying not to laugh at Aisha's antics. Once the other two were lost in the crowd, she turned to Sophia. "Twisted ankle, huh?"

Sophia grinned unrepentantly. "Got me off the roller-blades and into a movie with a good-looking guy, didn't it?"

"Yeah, well, you know we're gonna have to get back on to the roller-blades, right?"

"Can we do it tomorrow?" Sophia indicated the westering sun. "Bit late today."

"That's fine, but we can still talk about what we were talking about before you ran into Brian."

"Actually, I wanted to talk _about_ Brian," Sophia suggested. "Would you have problems with me seeing him again?"

"I -" Taylor stopped. "I couldn't let you go on a date on your own, not without talking to Ms Bright. But I can come along."

Sophia sighed, aggravated. "Damn probation. And he's such a nice guy, too. I got along with him really well."

"I could see that," Taylor agreed. "He is nice. And his sister's a hoot."

That raised a chuckle, despite Sophia's attempts to stifle it. "Yeah, she is. There's this line about a beautiful friendship in some movie or other -"

"Casablanca," Taylor supplied. " _'I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship'_. I've watched it with Dad a dozen times."

"Yeah, that's the one." Sophia smiled; a genuine smile. "The beginning of a beautiful friendship. That sounds about right."

And Taylor couldn't help but wonder if she was right.

* * *

End of Part One


	2. Chapter 2

**Confrontation II: the Reckoning**

* * *

Part Two: Conflict Resolution

* * *

Sophia eyed the office door sourly. It was in no way ostentatious; the plaque that read DEPUTY DIRECTOR was, if anything, a little understated. This did nothing to make her any happier.

"Do you _have_ to report this?" It wasn't the first time she'd asked the question, or even the second.

"No." Taylor turned to look directly at her. _"We_ do."

"Why? I mean that seriously. What they don't know won't hurt them."

"And what they find out later can hurt _you_ , quite a lot." Taylor indicated Sophia's booted ankle, currently free of the tracker bracelet, given that she was in costume. "I don't know how sophisticated the tracker is, or how closely they're following it. All they need to throw you back in juvey is just _one_ reason, and not even a good one. If they realise that we spent part of yesterday at the movies instead of rollerblading, that's a good enough reason. So we get in first."

"But I never ditched you," protested Sophia. "You were right there, keeping an eye on me."

"For which they only have my word," pointed out Taylor. "If you had indeed ditched me, they can breach you for it, and you go to juvey. On the other hand, if I'd let you talk me into going to the movies, that makes me look like a less than adequate parole officer; they take you off my hands, and you go to juvey. You can see where I'm going with this."

"But won't just telling them have the same effect?"

"Nope." Taylor favoured her with a grin. "If we tell before we're found out, we get to tell it _our_ way."

"Oh." Sophia blinked. "I never thought of admitting to it as being a way to get out of trouble. I'm used to just not being caught, I guess."

"So how's that working out for you, exactly?" Taylor's grin grew just a little razor-edged.

Sophia wrinkled her nose. _"Twice._ I was caught _twice."_

"But it was those two times that mattered, yeah?" The grin became a smirk.

Taylor was right, of course; the two times that Sophia had been caught in her breakages of the rules were the significant ones. The first had been an incriminating arrow left nailing a nearly-dead gang member to a wall; that near-murder had led the PRT to issue an arrest warrant for her.

It had been a shocking and salutary lesson for Sophia, previously secure in her personal conviction that nobody could catch her if she didn't allow them to. With almost insulting ease, the PRT had tracked her down, hemmed her in, and taken her prisoner. Almost as shocking had been her unmasking at their hands; however, they had not made the information public, or even threatened to. In less than a day, she had gone from being strong and untouchable to just another teen undergoing the less-than-tender mercies of the juvenile justice system.

The second time she had been caught had been, of course, at the hands of Taylor herself. In their civilian lives they had been bitter enemies, an enmity pursued more strenuously from Sophia's side than Taylor's. In light of what she knew now, Sophia had reason to give thanks for Taylor not opting to declare all-out war upon Sophia and her fellow bullies. Such a conflict would have been as short-lived as it was unequal, and Taylor would have almost certainly come out the victor.

This time, she had been more stunned than surprised; first by the revelation that Buzz was the despised Hebert, and second by the fact that Taylor was _standing by_ her, rather than letting her be thrown to the wolves.

All of this had driven a very deep wedge into her system of beliefs, most especially strength versus weakness, and her ability to spot either one. Her self-confidence had also taken a hit; one she was sure she would recover from, but in the meantime she found it better to defer to Taylor's judgement. Scratch that: _Buzz's_ judgement.

"You suck," muttered Sophia. Taylor's smirk merely intensified. She raised her hand and rapped briskly upon the Deputy Director's door.

* * *

"Come in."

Deputy Director Renick watched the door open; Buzz came in first, followed by Shadow Stalker. Clasping his hands in front of him, he looked them over; neither one seemed particularly upset, which was a good sign. "Please, sit down." They did so. "You wanted to see me?"

"Yes, sir," Buzz replied. "I'd like to report an incident that happened yesterday while we were down at the Boardwalk, rollerblading." She waited expectantly.

Renick paused. "Ah, yes," he replied. "I believe I recall that. Mrs Yamada required you to do that as part of therapy. So what is it that you would like to report?"

Buzz took a breath. "Basically, that we didn't spend the whole time roller-blading. Sophia suffered a collision, and hurt her ankle, so she couldn't keep going. So we … well, we went to the movies."

Renick pursed his lips. "The movies."

Buzz nodded. "Yes, sir."

"And Shadow Stalker was in your sight the whole time?"

"Yes, sir."

"And did you make any progress on your issues with each other?" As Buzz went to answer, he held up his hand. "I'd like to hear this one from Shadow Stalker."

"Oh, uh, yeah," replied the other girl. "We talked a bit. She said some stuff that hurt, but it was true anyway."

"Is it something you can repeat to me, or would you rather keep it for Mrs Yamada?" asked Renick carefully.

The two girls glanced at each other, and Buzz shrugged slightly. Shadow Stalker nodded, and turned back to Renick. "She told me I was being a Nazi," she admitted. "That hurt, a lot."

"A Nazi?" asked Renick, somewhat taken aback. He turned to Buzz. "Did you really?"

"Well, actually, I asked her how long she'd been in the Empire Eighty-Eight," Buzz admitted. "But it's the same thing, I guess."

"But … why?"

"Because of the way I used to do stuff to her, before I knew she was Buzz," Shadow Stalker clarified. "I like feeling strong, and Emma wanted to feel strong, so I picked her to push down so we could feel stronger. She says it's how the Nazis did things, and she's smarter than me so I guess she'd know."

"Hm." Renick rubbed his chin. "I suppose it _was_ kind of the way they worked, yes." He looked at Sophia. "How did you react when she told you this?"

"What do you think? I was pissed. But then she told me what she meant by it, and yeah, I wasn't happy, but she wasn't wrong either." Her mask hid her expression, but her tone of voice was less than thrilled. "That sort of shit hurts. Especially when it's true."

* * *

"Well, I'm not going to try to analyse that," the Deputy Director assured her. "It's not my job. But I _am_ pleased to hear that you are making some progress. Which doesn't mean that I'm overly happy about you going to see a movie when you should be roller-blading, but it is good that you're reporting it to me." He paused. "You weren't limping when you came in, so I presume that it wasn't anything serious?"

"Not so much, no," Sophia agreed.

"But it did put her off her feet for an hour or so," Taylor noted, "so we could either sit around outside or … well, movie. By the time it finished, it was getting dark, so we went home."

Renick nodded. "Well, all right. I can accept that." His eyes glinted. "Just be aware that I _will_ be noting this down. So I suggest that you not make a habit of it."

"No, sir," Taylor agreed. "Thank you, sir." She had an uncomfortable feeling that he knew, or had guessed, more than she was admitting about what had happened.

"Was there anything else?" he asked.

"Uh, no, sir." Taylor shook her head. "We're good to go."

"Good to hear. I'm rostering you on to patrol with Clockblocker. The three of you are reasonably competent, but do not forget that he's in charge." Renick looked over his glasses at them. "Understood?"

This time, Sophia answered first. "Yeah, we got it." Taylor followed on with her own answer in the affirmative.

"And don't stop off to go to the movies, hmm?" This last was delivered with a wry smile.

Taylor and Sophia escaped from his office, carefully closing the door behind them. As they moved off down the corridor, Sophia turned to Taylor. "He knew, didn't he? Did you tell him?"

"Hey, I said nothing," Taylor replied, holding her hands up. "If I was gonna spill the beans, I would've done it in front of you. You know me."

"Yeah, I guess I do." Sophia moved on down the corridor. "How the hell did he figure it out then? Or do you think he was having us watched?"

"Nah, it's simpler than that," Taylor decided, matching her pace. "He's been here for years. He's been in charge of the Wards all this time. Do you think there's _anything_ that he hasn't caught them – us – doing at some time or another?"

"Huh." Sophia's voice sounded as though she were thinking hard about this. "I guess you're right."

"Uh huh." Behind her mask, Taylor grinned. "So, was I right about telling him before he found out for sure?"

"You still suck." But Sophia didn't sound angry.

"Right, sure. Says you." Taylor indicated the elevator. "Renick said that we were rostered on with Clockblocker. So, let's go find Clockblocker."

* * *

It was relatively quiet in the Wards' base; Kid Win was covering the monitor console, and Vista was soundly beating Aegis at ping-pong in the game area. Dennis sat at one of the tables with Buzz and Shadow Stalker.

He looked from one girl to the other. _Great. What did I do to deserve this?_ Shadow Stalker was hot and all, but it didn't mean that he _liked_ her. Nobody in the Wards did, not really. Except Buzz. Which he still couldn't understand. Especially after what had happened.

"Okay," he began, then cleared his throat. "Okay. I get it that we're going on patrol, and I'm in charge. That's fine. I just want to make one thing absolutely clear from the start."

Buzz tilted her head slightly. Her costume was almost the opposite of his; dark grey and black instead of white, creepy yellow goggle lenses instead of a faceplate, insect mandibles instead of clock faces. _I still think it would make a great supervillain costume. How could you make something like this and_ _ **not**_ _realise what it was going to look like before you were finished?_

"Sure," she responded. "What is it?"

He waited a moment, until he realised that Shadow Stalker wasn't going to add her two cents. "Uh, I just wanted to make sure that both of you knew that you're not allowed to kill each other while we're out there. Attack the bad guys all you like, but not each other. Is that clear?"

"Oh, _that?"_ asked Buzz. "We're past that, right, Shadow Stalker?"

"Yeah," the cloaked ex-vigilante agreed, addressing Dennis. "She broke my jaw, so we're all good now. Besides, I'd be a moron to try to attack her. Seriously, do you have any _idea_ how good she is with her bugs?"

"Uh, pretty good?" he ventured. "I _was_ there when we rescued you and Browbeat from Stormtiger."

"Pfft." She waved that off. "That was her playing minor league. She's stepped up her game since then."

"Shadow Stalker … " That was Buzz, not sounding particularly pleased.

"Until you've seen her doing bugpocalypse, you ain't seen nothing." Shadow Stalker dusted off her hands in a satisfied manner.

"Uh … bugpocalypse?" _That really doesn't sound good._ He looked at Buzz. "What's, uh, bugpocalypse?"

Buzz gestured off-handedly. "It's Shadow Stalker's stupid name for one of our tactics."

"It's not a stupid name," Shadow Stalker protested. "It's a great name. And it describes it perfectly."

"And what _is_ it, exactly?" _Is this how Miss Piggy feels when she has to deal with me all the time?_

"Oh, uh, I cover people with bugs, then Shadow Stalker takes them down."

Shadow Stalker snorted. "More like, she puts bugs everywhere people don't want bugs to go." Her chuckle sounded positively _evil._ "Imagine every time a bug's walked across the back of your neck. Now imagine about a million of them, all _smart._ All knowing exactly where to go to give you the biggest squick-out in history. Knowing exactly where to crawl, where to bite. All over you. _That's_ what she does."

Dennis could, unfortunately, imagine it. He repressed a shudder. "O … kay. I see. Well then. This is non-lethal, right?"

"Oh, sure," answered Buzz promptly. "I tell spiders not to bite, and I've got epi-pens in case someone's allergic to wasps or bees."

"Mind you," Shadow Stalker chimed in, "with the bigger and nastier ones, like Lung, she doesn't have to hold back." She looked at Buzz. "Is it really true that so many spiders bit him on the junk that it fell off?"

"No!" The word popped out hastily. "Because, uh, Panacea was there. He didn't lose, uh, anything important." Her voice dropped, and Dennis was almost certain that she muttered, "Thank god."

 _Yeah, I wouldn't want Lung that pissed at me, either._ He didn't want to even imagine how angry the ABB leader would get after losing _that_ part of his anatomy. "Uh, okay, no more discussion over that sort of thing. Buzz, please check with me before unleashing your, uh, bugpocalypse."

"Sure, I can do that," the bug-themed cape agreed.

"Good. Let's go."

* * *

" _On my mark. Three. Two. One. Mark."_

At the word 'Mark', Sophia turned insubstantial and dropped through the roof of the convenience store; her specialised lenses let her see where the electrical cables were, and thus avoid them.

Within, the would-be robbers were already embroiled in a swarm of bugs, assailing them from all directions. A few bugs zipped through her shadow form as she dropped to the floor, but nowhere near as many as were already crawling over the men. She would have winced as she saw the bugs getting under the balaclavas that the robbers were wearing, but the sight was too satisfying, especially as they were too distracted by that to pay much attention to her.

Which was their bad luck; she nailed two with tranq arrows, and began to reload, but the last two robbers decided to make a bolt for it. "Two down, one heading front, one heading back!"

That was for Clockblocker's benefit, Buzz was covering the front door, but her bugs would give her a heads-up long before they got there.

" _Roger."_ That was Clockblocker.

" _Got it."_ Buzz's voice.

She took the time to secure the ones that she had put down; the tranq arrows didn't necessarily work as well as advertised, when it came to heavier than normal opponents, or thick clothing.

" _Mine's down,"_ Buzz reported before she was finished; behind her mask she smirked.

" _Got mine, too,"_ Clockblocker noted.

"Lawn ornament, yeah?" asked Sophia. "Need help securing him?"

" _No, I'm fine. I've called the police."_

"Okay. I'll be out at the front."

By the time she got there, Buzz's guy was down on the ground, his wrists neatly secured behind his back. He no longer wore the mass of bugs that had been swarming him as he attempted to escape, but she fancied that he was still twitching in delayed reaction.

"All good out here?" Sophia asked cheerfully.

"Sure," Buzz replied, the insects in the area mimicking her voice to add a buzzing undertone to it. It sounded extremely creepy, and very badass.

Sophia leaned against the wall, putting her expended arrows away, and reloading her crossbows with fresh cartridges. "We do make an awesome team, don't we?"

Buzz sighed. "Listen. We're not _friends_ any more. We're teammates, and yes, we do make a good team, but there's a lot between us that needs to be worked out. I'm willing to work with you, and I've got your back, but … I'm going to need more time, and a lot more talking, before we can start getting back to where we were before. Okay?"

Sophia compressed her lips behind her mask. " … yeah, okay. Sorry for bothering you."

"Hey. I'm not mad, and you're not bothering me." Buzz put a hand on her arm. "We do kick ass. And I'm sorry too, for snapping at you."

"Wait." Sophia blinked. "Did you just _apologise_ to me?"

Buzz tilted her head. "What if I did?"

"No-one apologises to me. It feels weird."

"Maybe that's because you don't often apologise to other people," Buzz pointed out.

"Huh. You might be right. You're about the only one I've ever felt like saying sorry to."

Clockblocker came strolling out through the front entrance of the convenience store. "Shouldn't you be saving that sort of conversation for the therapy?"

Sophia stared at him suspiciously. "How did you even know we're having therapy?"

"Because, for my sins, I'm currently leader of the Wards here in Brockton Bay," replied the white-clad teen with a sigh. "And because I'm that, I was briefed in on your situation. Including the therapy. And just by the way, I do agree; you two do make a damned effective team. And you haven't tried to kill each other even once, which I _will_ be putting into my report on this patrol."

"Great, thanks," Sophia retorted sarcastically. "We get a report all to ourselves."

"Hey, it's for your own good," Clockblocker pointed out. "The more it's documented that you're actually getting out there and making a difference, rather than causing a problem, the better it looks for you all round."

"Still not sure if I like it," Sophia told him. "Buzz, what do you think?"

"Sorry, what?" Buzz looked around. "I was thinking about something."

"What about?" asked Sophia.

"This guy. He's ABB." She indicated the red and green logo on the back of the jacket. "The rest are too, right?"

"Yeah," Clockblocker agreed. "Why's that?"

"Well, Lung's in custody and Bakuda's in another dimension. The ABB's been hit pretty hard, cape-wise, over the last week or so." Buzz's voice was thoughtful. "You'd think they'd keep their heads down for a while, instead of getting out and robbing places like this, wouldn't you?"

"Yeah, I -" began Clockblocker, but he was rudely interrupted by the sudden appearance of a demon-masked figure, in the middle of the group.

* * *

Sophia had just enough time to register who it was – _Oni Lee! FUCK! -_ before she was clawing her crossbows off of her belt. Buzz had been facing away from both Sophia and Clockblocker, turning toward the older teen, when it happened; with a sick feeling, Sophia saw a gleaming blade swing in a short arc, terminating between Buzz's shoulderblades.

At the same time, the demonic apparition released something from its left hand, something that bounced on the concrete of the parking lot with a metallic clattering noise. A piece of metal, released almost in the instant that it had been dropped, sprang away from the metal ovoid and skittered across the concrete on its own trajectory.

Sophia brought up her crossbows and triggered both of them; the arrows flew straight and true, impacting in Oni Lee's centre mass. He started to fall, just as Buzz and Clockblocker were falling. The former was lurching forward because of the knife between her shoulderblades, while the latter was … diving on the grenade? _Why doesn't he just freeze the fucking thing?_

Time, which had seemed to be slowed to a crawl, abruptly sped up again. Sophia went to shadow form, just before the grenade exploded. The detonation was muffled, hidden under Clockblocker's form. _He can't freeze himself … even if he's frozen his costume, that's gotta hurt._

Buzz was on the ground; Oni Lee's body, likewise, crumbled to ash. Sophia returned to solid form. "Buzz!" _Oh god, he stabbed her in the back._

Abruptly, bugs converged at a point behind Sophia; the sound of bugpocalypse was familiar enough to her that she went to dive forward. But something caught her cloak, and a sharp pain shot through her shoulder. She went to shadow once more, freeing herself and turning at the same time. He was behind her, the tip of his blade reddened with her blood. As she watched, bugs converged on him from all over.

And then, even as she hastened to reload her crossbows – not an easy task in shadow, but still possible – the grenade that he had dropped, the one that she hadn't even seen or heard, went off.

She was flung backward, still in shadow form, as the concussion and the shrapnel ripped through her, tattering her semi-immaterial substance. Losing consciousness would be a bad thing, she knew, and so she hung on desperately to her awareness.

Sophia wanted to throw up, but she was pretty sure that such an act was physically impossible in her shadow form. Groggily, she watched Oni Lee reappear once more, this time right next to Buzz, even as his previous form, shredded by the grenade blast, crumbled away.

 _He's going to make sure of her._

 _The fuck he is._

* * *

Shifting to solid form hurt, physically. She felt bruised all over, even in places where bruises should not be able to form. Unable to stand, she fell to one knee, but triggered her crossbow anyway. The arrow hit him in the back, a clean shot; he stumbled, but something clattered on the concrete before him. Two things. The knife and … _another fucking grenade._

"Oh, come _on!"_ Even as she screamed the protest, she dived forward, pushing off with her good leg and going to shadow on the way. Only a few seconds of life remained for Buzz; her armour was good, but not that damned good.

Oni Lee had fallen forward over Buzz, but that wasn't Sophia's biggest problem. _That_ was the grenade, which had rolled right up next to Buzz, as if it knew its intended target. _It'll gut her like a fish. No fucking way._

Sophia's straining fingers touched the grenade, pulling it into the shadow realm with her, and then shoving it _down,_ as hard as she could. It disappeared into the ground, even as she lifted a little in reaction. The timer must have been right on activation when she pulled her hand back; her arm wasn't all the way out of the ground when the grenade exploded. The slab that Buzz was lying on lifted and cracked slightly, but there was no other effect.

Moving hurt, even in the shadow form. Doing _anything_ hurt. Even as Oni Lee's body crumbled to ash – _again –_ she was rolling to her feet, scanning around for the next attack. _There._ Standing off a little way, aiming what looked like an automatic pistol at Buzz. Firing. He wasn't a great shot, not assisted by the bugs already swarming him. Each flat _crack_ was accompanied by a spurt of concrete dust; the shots were getting closer. More and more bugs were arriving by the second, which was about the only reason he hadn't hit either of them yet. But he was still trying.

 _Well, fuck you._ Sophia went solid once more, forcing herself to stay upright, shooting her other crossbow at Lee. She was a better shot than him; the arrow took him in the throat. But she hadn't taken into account the other aspect of his power; even as she loosed the arrow, the arm went around her neck from behind.

* * *

One in front, falling; one behind, a fresh version. She forced herself into shadow form once more, to slip the hold; she hadn't seen the blade, but she was sure that it had been close to her vitals. But there was exactly zero time for her to congratulate herself, because _Buzz was the target._

Still in shadow form, Sophia twisted; there was the blade, all right. Ignoring her, Oni Lee drove the gleaming knife down toward Buzz. His initial strike point, Sophia saw, had been the carapace that Buzz wore over her upper back; she saw the gouge in it, but the point hadn't carried through. Now, however, he was aiming at Buzz's lower back, putting all his weight behind it. _Kidney or spine. Either could be fatal._

Without warning, Buzz rolled, her arm flashing around, up under the carapace; the knife point hit concrete. Sophia went solid, just as Lee appeared _again,_ on the other side of Buzz, standing over the body of the ABB thug that Buzz had taken down just minutes before. The kneeling Oni Lee was still active, and he had a knife at the ready; she kneed him in the side of the head, staggering him. Thumbing the activation on her crossbow, she brought another arrow into line, shooting it at the new arrival – just as a _third_ one appeared next to the second.

The one that she had kneed slashed backward with his knife, opening a gash on what she had laughably called her 'good' leg; she cried out, but refused to go down, refused to go shadow. But then he began to crumble to ash, as the second one fell back with the arrow pumping tranquilliser into him. The third one finished pulling his pistol and pointed it at her face. And then a _fourth_ one appeared beside the third one, also pulling his pistol.

In the normal run of things, Sophia would have simply gone to shadow form and let them waste all the bullets they wanted. But they had Buzz, probably still dazed from the close-in grenade blast, at their mercy; Sophia was pretty sure that her costume would not stand up to bullets, even if it worked against knives.

Buzz sat up quite suddenly; the one pointing a pistol at Sophia, trying to make sure of his aim in the midst of the howling storm of insects that had descended upon them, received a stream of pepper spray all over the eye-holes of his mask. He stumbled backward, but the other one slanted his weapon down toward Buzz. He couldn't miss … but he never fired.

* * *

For a long moment, Sophia couldn't figure it out … and then she saw Clockblocker's hand grasping Oni Lee's heel. _He came out of freeze, just in time. Thank fuck for that._

She looked around as the third Lee crumbled, alert for the next attack, the next Oni Lee to pop up. Long moments passed; nothing happened, except that more bugs arrived to join the giant swarm now orbiting the parking lot.

"Holy shit," she muttered. "You got him."

"No," Buzz told her. _"We_ got him."

"Ow," supplied Clockblocker, as he got up painfully. "Ow. Ow. Ow. Close up explosions are _no fun."_

Sophia found it painful to laugh, but chuckled anyway. "Yeah," she wheezed. "Got that, thanks."

"So what was that about anyway?" asked Buzz. "Why was he trying so hard to kill me?"

"My guess? Lung and Bakuda," Clockblocker pointed out. "You were there for both those incidents." He placed a hand on Oni Lee's shoulder, gripping it tightly. "Tranquilliser arrow?"

Numbly, Sophia pulled one out and handed it to Buzz, who handed it on to Clockblocker. "You think we can actually keep him prisoner?"

"I dunno," Clockblocker admitted. "But I'm sure as hell not letting him go."

"Amen to that," Buzz agreed. "Amen to that."

* * *

End of Part Two


	3. Chapter 3

**Confrontation II: The Reckoning**

* * *

Part Three: Repercussions

* * *

 **Tuesday, April 26, 2011**

* * *

Sophia had been in life-or-death situations before, but they had rarely been about _her_ life or death, and they'd never involved someone she actually cared about. This situation was different; it hit her harder, on a more visceral level. If Buzz had actually died … she didn't know how she would handle that. Even after the bug controller had broken her jaw, there was _still_ nobody else in the Wards with whom she could connect nearly half as well.

What she couldn't figure out was how Buzz could be taking it so calmly. The bug controller was standing off to the side a little; if Sophia knew her, there would be bugs spreading out over her entire range, locating each and every person in that area.

"No other gang activity nearby," Buzz stated. Her voice was quiet, but the bugs around her repeated the sounds, so that her statement reached both Sophia and Clockblocker easily enough. "It all looks quiet."

"Good," Clockblocker replied, not looking away from Oni Lee. He had the tip of the tranq arrow up against the time-frozen villain's arm, applying almost enough pressure to break the vial and release the sedative. "Shadow Stalker, call this in. Buzz, back off. Get out of sight."

Sophia could see the sense in that. She was less sure about Clockblocker's chances if Oni Lee managed to start teleporting before her team leader managed to freeze him again.

"No." Buzz shook her head. "I'm not leaving you."

"That wasn't a request." There was a tone to Clockblocker's voice that Shadow Stalker had rarely heard before. Normally, the white-clad Ward was never serious, making jokes at the most inappropriate of times. Sophia was even pretty sure she'd caught him looking at her butt more than once. But now, he actually sounded like a leader, like someone who knew what they were talking about. "I'm _ordering_ you to clear the area."

"Clock's got a point," Sophia agreed. "And whether you're over there out of sight or right next to us, you can still bugpocalypse Lee all you like." She pointed at the pistol. "Your armour's good, but it's not _that_ good."

"Okay, sure," Buzz replied reluctantly, starting to move away. "Can you at least jam it up or something?"

"It's frozen, like the rest of him." But Sophia was looking at the pistol, with ideas forming in her head. "But if I had some duct tape …"

"What, like this?" Sophia looked around as Buzz asked the question, to see a roll of tape arcing toward her. "That help?"

Behind her mask, Sophia grinned as she caught it. "Is there anything you _don't_ carry back there?"

"Still working on the kitchen sink." Buzz paused. "Sure you don't need a hand?"

Sophia gestured. "Go. We got this." Turning toward the still-frozen Oni Lee, she pulled a length of tape free. "Now … let's see."

* * *

Oni Lee blinked. Things had suddenly gone dark. _What happened?_ He had been fighting with the bug girl and Shadow Stalker. Despite their desperate resistance, he'd had the bug girl in his sights. Reflexively, he squeezed the trigger; nothing happened. Something was stopping it from completing its backward motion.

Something stung his arm and he lashed out instinctively; his elbow hit nothing but air. _Why can't I see anything?_ Reaching toward his face, he realised that his fingers were bound together with some kind of tough material, hampering both his range of movement and his sense of touch. His mask, he discovered a moment later, was somehow fastened to his head. He tried to drop the useless gun, but it would not leave his grip; he couldn't even open his hand.

With the one hand, wrapped in the heavy, clinging material, he clawed at his mask, trying to pull it away from his face. That was when he discovered that there was some kind of binding wrapped around the mask and all the way around his head. It was also covering the eye-holes of the mask, rendering him effectively blind.

A cold sensation spread through his body from the point where he had felt the sting. Lassitude overcame him; he fought against it, but found himself dropping to his knees. As consciousness faded away, he thought he heard the sound of an approaching vehicle, but he couldn't quite place it.

Armsmaster climbed off the motorcycle and looked across at a crumpled tarp which had a pair of feet sticking out from under it. Three more mooks in ABB colours, their hands bound behind their backs, were lined up along the front of the building, but his attention was on the apparent corpse. "What happened to him?"

It was Clockblocker who answered. "Oni Lee was tossing around grenades. One of them caught that guy. The rest were inside or out back."

Armsmaster nodded. "Ah." Collateral damage, although unfortunate, was a fact of life when dealing with hardened criminals. The fact that Lee had taken out one of his _own_ men when trying to kill Buzz was unfortunate, but viewed in the light of cold hard reality, it could have been much worse. "So Lee is sedated?"

"Yes, sir." Clockblocker held up a tranq arrow; Armsmaster could tell from the empty reservoir that it had been expended. "I don't know how long it'll last."

Armsmaster looked down at the unconscious villain. "Did you give him the full dose?"

"Yes, sir," Clockblocker affirmed. "I wanted him asleep just as fast as possible."

"I can't fault your logic," the Protectorate hero agreed. He rubbed his chin. "I have to say, I had thought I'd seen every use there was for duct tape, but this is a new one on me. Whose idea?"

"Shadow Stalker's," Clockblocker said. "Buzz supplied the roll."

"Yeah," the cloaked Ward added. "But I think I owe her a new one." She held up a forlorn-looking cardboard tube; Armsmaster recognised the type immediately. "I kind of used it all."

Armsmaster nodded slowly. She hadn't gone easy with it, that was for certain. Both of Lee's hands had been swathed in the tough, sticky tape, with a solid wad of it pushed behind the trigger of the pistol he was holding. More held the villain's mask to his face, while yet more again had been wrapped around the bandoleers of knives and grenades that he carried, to ensure that he would not be able to make use of them.

"Well done," he agreed. "I'll give him another dose of sedative, just to make sure he stays under, then get him back to headquarters. We'll deal with the duct tape once we get him back there." He looked around. "Where's Buzz?"

"Over here," the bug controller called out, rounding the corner of the convenience store. "Clockblocker made me get out of sight, in case Lee got loose again."

"Good thinking." Armsmaster gave the white-clad Ward a measured nod. "From what you say, he was going all-out to kill her. Any idea why?"

Clockblocker shrugged. "Just that she was there when Lung was taken down, and when Bakuda was sent elsewhere. Maybe he was trying to make a statement?"

"If he wants to make a statement, he'll make a statement all right," Armsmaster said grimly. "Multiple counts of attempted murder on a Ward? That's a Birdcage offence, right there."

"Uh, I don't know much about it, but isn't it a three-strikes thing?" Buzz's voice was diffident. "I mean, you've gotta do something pretty heinous to get sent there, right?"

"Wait, you're arguing _against_ him going to the Birdcage?" Shadow Stalker stared at her. "The asshole tried to _kill_ you. Repeatedly."

"Yeah," agreed Clockblocker. "What she said."

Armsmaster noted with grim amusement the startled glance that the two Wards shared. _That's probably the first thing they've agreed on since Shadow Stalker joined the team._

Buzz shook her head. "No, I'm not saying he shouldn't go," she said. "Just that … well, I don't know how it works, I guess."

"To be honest, the three-strikes rule is more complex than the public generally understands," the older hero explained. "For a start, not all crimes even register as a 'strike'. Crimes where nobody gets hurt tend to be overlooked altogether. Rob a convenience store three times? You don't even make the radar. Particularly violent or flashy crimes – anything that catches the public eye, really – are what make the 'strikes', and a really nasty one might count as two or even three strikes at once."

"Wait, wait." Clockblocker interrupted. "So you're saying that if someone committed lots of low-level crimes, so long as they kept their head down, they'd be in no danger of going to the Birdcage?"

"Unless they started hurting or killing people, certainly," agreed Armsmaster. "Then all their prior crimes would suddenly add up. Premeditated murder's a big one."

Shadow Stalker looked around at that one. "So if I get this right, the PRT can basically handwave three strikes whenever they feel like it?"

"If the PRT feels that the offence merits it, they will strongly advise the judiciary to push for the Birdcage, yes," Armsmaster told her. "That sort of leeway does exist, although we don't tend to use it all that much. The potential for abuse is huge, so they almost always go for lesser sentences. Except for, as Buzz put it, particularly heinous crimes."

Shadow Stalker hadn't finished. "So … what if one villain decided to off another one? Would he be likely to be Birdcaged?"

"Unlikely. The villain's prior record would have to be taken into account. Gavel, for instance. You've heard of him?"

"Australian villain," Clockblocker supplied. "Used to target other villains. Saw himself as a hero. This was sort of before the unwritten rules really came into effect, so he used to go after family members and friends to draw out the villains."

"Exactly." Armsmaster gave the Ward an approving nod. "It's more the targeting civilians that got him put into the Birdcage, but murdering villains was also a factor. The murder part, not the villains. Going after _heroes,_ on the other hand …" He gestured at Lee. "This attempt today … well, if it had been more of a one-off thing, then yes, it would just be one strike. But this _wasn't_ a single random attack. He went after you with malice aforethought. The PRT has a very firm policy regarding anyone specifically targeting a Protectorate cape for murder." He indicated the body under the tarp. "Plus, there's a case for murder right there. _And_ he has prior offences. We've just never been able to lay hands on him before."

"Huh." Buzz's voice was thoughtful. "I guess that kind of makes sense, then."

"Exactly." Armsmaster put his hand on her shoulder. "How are you bearing up? Want to finish your patrol off now? You've just been through a pretty traumatic experience."

Buzz laughed a little shakily. "What, as compared to Lung nearly killing me, or falling to my near-death? I'm still walking, I've got all my hair, and I've got no major injuries. I call this a win."

"Actually, sir," Clockblocker put in, "I think _I'll_ call the patrol off for today. This was a rough fight for all of us. Besides, we've got reports to write up."

"That's understandable," Armsmaster allowed. "I'll get a van to come pick you up. The police will be by soon to get the surviving perps."

* * *

Taylor found herself leaning against the wall as Armsmaster bundled Oni Lee into a cage that he had erected on the back of his motorcycle. Shadow Stalker leaned beside her, arms folded.

"How are you doing?" the dark-clad Ward asked quietly. "And don't bullshit me. How are you _really_ doing?"

"I, uh, I guess I'll survive," Taylor said, equally quietly. "I didn't get hurt this time, thankfully."

"That's _not_ what I'm talking about, and you know it." Shadow Stalker's voice was impatient. "You're tough. I already know that. You don't have to put on a show for me and Clockblocker. Are you all right, or not?"

"It's not like it was with Lung." Taylor found the words spilling from her mouth. "Or with Bakuda. Those times, I was just in the way. Wrong place at the wrong time. This time, he wanted me _dead._ He wanted _me_ dead." She could feel herself beginning to shake, just a little. "I'm still trying to get my head around that."

"Hey." Sophia turned toward her. "It's easy to explain. He's a douche and a sore loser. You messed with the ABB so he tried to mess with you. But we messed with him harder."

Taylor tried to swallow the lump in her throat. "I'm just glad that you were there. You saved my life. Again."

"Yeah, well, you're my partner. Nobody messes with my partner."

Without quite knowing how she did it, Taylor found herself hugging Sophia. "Thanks. Thank you. For being there. For saving me."

"Hey." Shadow Stalker was obviously just a little uncomfortable with hugging, but she didn't push Taylor away. "You saved my ass too. I saw you pepper-spray that one copy. He was about to shoot me." Slowly, her arms crept around Taylor.

"Yeah, well, like you said, partners, right?" Taylor could feel her shakes beginning to recede. "You don't get out of probation _that_ easily."

Sophia snorted with amusement. "And straight back to juvey? No thanks. But to be honest, I wasn't even thinking about that. I just wasn't gonna let that dirtbag hurt you. You know how I hate to lose."

Taylor let her head rest against Shadow Stalker's for a moment. "Well, thanks. I mean it."

The other girl sighed. "And there you go again, making me feel all emotional and crap. And you don't even _like_ me. Not that I blame you."

"Well, that's changing as of right now." Taylor gave her an extra squeeze. "You put your life on the line for me, even knowing how I felt about you. So I think it's time I cut you just a little slack."

"Hey, don't go getting all soft on me now, Buzz," Shadow Stalker warned her.

Taylor chuckled. "Too late. I'm gonna be asking for permission for us to go to the movies. And to invite friends along, if you want."

Shadow Stalker stepped back for a moment. "Wait, you mean -"

"Yup." Taylor nodded. "We can invite tall, dark and hunky along. If you really want to, that is." Deep in her heart, she felt a pang. _I'd love to take him to the movies on my own. But then I'd be backstabbing Shadow Stalker. I'd be no better than her._ A half-smile. _Besides, Aisha's a lot of fun to be around, and there's nothing stopping me from admiring the eye candy anyway._

"I …" Sophia stopped. "I … holy shit. Are you serious? You're not serious. You _are_ serious." There was wonder in her voice.

Taylor nodded. "Never been more serious in my life."

"What are we being serious about now?" asked Clockblocker, strolling over to where they stood. Armsmaster had taken Oni Lee away; they were alone in the parking lot, save for the unfortunate ABB casualty and the live mooks. "If it's girl talk, let me know and I'll go watch the mooks for a bit."

"It's all good," Taylor assured him. "This is just a personal thing. I'm going to be asking permission to take her to the movies. And maybe bring a date along."

Clockblocker looked from one to the other. "That's really nice of you, Buzz. But hang on a second. If you bring a date along, won't Shadow Stalker kind of cramp your style?"

Taylor ignored Sophia's sudden coughing fit. "No, the date isn't for _me._ It's for _her."_

"Okay, now I'm more confused than ever," Clockblocker confessed, turning to face Shadow Stalker. "There's a guy your age who _isn't_ terrified to ask you out on a date?"

Taylor winced, fully expecting Shadow Stalker to blow up on the spot. _Oh boy, here it comes._ But instead of punching or insulting him, her reply was almost sweet. "Yup. And he's a really nice guy." Taylor watched her step up until she was face to face with Clockblocker; interestingly enough, the two Wards were almost exactly the same height. "So you can keep dreaming."

"I, uh, sorry I said anything." Clockblocker paused. "But I'll vouch for you if they ask me. You did good today. Really good."

"Thanks." Taylor raised her voice slightly, turning his attention away from Shadow Stalker. "I appreciate it. _We_ appreciate it." She lifted her chin. "Now, uh, if you don't mind, I would actually like to have some girl talk with her?"

He took the hint; giving her a sketchy salute, he backed off to where the mooks were still waiting to be picked up.

"What?" Sophia murmured, once he was out of earshot. "Did you think I was gonna deck him or something?"

"The thought crossed my mind, yeah," Taylor said. "That, or call him an asshole."

Shadow Stalker snorted softly. "Almost did," she admitted. "Decided at the last moment that it wouldn't be a smart idea to call my team leader names until _after_ he's written his after-action report."

Taylor chuckled. "Is it me, or are you actually learning tact?"

A rude noise emanated from behind the scowling-woman mask. "Wash your mouth out."

Taylor grinned. After learning that one important fact, she had felt that she would never be able to connect with Shadow Stalker on the same easy level that they'd had before. Now, she was hopeful; it would be a long while before she was truly comfortable with the new situation, but it seemed that Sophia was making the effort as well.

 _I trust her with my life. Now I just have to learn how to trust her with my friendship again._

* * *

 **That Evening**

* * *

"So let me get this straight." Unconsciously, Deputy Director Renick squared off the papers in front of him with his fingertips. "You want to go to the movies again instead of roller-blading, and you want to allow Shadow Stalker to ask along a _date?"_ His eyebrows rose on the last word as he looked significantly at the two teenage girls before him.

"I'll also be roller-blading, to get there and back," Taylor pointed out helpfully. "I was thinking we could meet the others at the movies."

"Others." His tone was dry. "So this is a date for you also, Buzz?"

"Uh, no, not really. The boy Sophia wants to go out with has a sister. We're pretty good friends." She seemed about to say more, but shut her mouth firmly instead.

"Indeed. And where did you meet these people?" He watched their faces. "Down at the Boardwalk last time, for instance? Did you perhaps go to the movies with them?"

Sophia opened her mouth, but Taylor nudged her; she closed her mouth again. "Uh, yes, sir," the bug controller admitted. "It really was an accident. Sophia literally ran into him and hurt her ankle."

Renick closed his eyes, pressing his fingertips to his forehead for a moment. "And why, exactly, did you _not_ report the fact that your trip to the movies was actually in the company of others?"

"Because at that time it was a one-off, sir." Buzz's voice was earnest. "I didn't know if I'd even be thinking about asking permission to do it again. And I didn't want to prejudice Sophia's progress reports."

"Indeed." His dry tone made them both wilt just a little. "And what, exactly, makes you think that I would be inclined to sign off on a repeat performance? Especially given that you weren't totally forthcoming with me, the first time around?"

Buzz took a deep breath. "Sir, we _did_ tell you that we went to the movies. We're not going behind your back on this one. And I do think that it's helping my relationship with Shadow Stalker. We _are_ getting things worked out."

"Hm." Renick picked up the report before him. For once, Clockblocker had deviated from his normally irritating habit of extreme brevity. The glowing language virtually leaped off the page as he described Shadow Stalker's desperate attempts to prevent Oni Lee from murdering Buzz. Trapped in his own time-frozen costume, the leader of the Wards had been an involuntary spectator for most of the fight. By his account, Shadow Stalker had been wounded twice – her bandaged shoulder and leg attested to that – and had still managed to keep Lee's clones off of Buzz just long enough for the tide to turn.

The two girls watched him as he straightened the papers once more and placed them back on his desk. Interestingly enough, it was Shadow Stalker who seemed impassive, while Buzz was more tense. He let them sweat just a little longer before speaking.

"On the other hand, this report is a prime example of what we're trying to encourage in the Wards," he began. "You backed one another up, you saved each others' lives, and you _worked together._ I cannot overstate how much I approve of this. Shadow Stalker, you're a probationary Ward twice over now; however, despite all expectations to the contrary, you have justified Buzz's trust in the most definitive way possible. Buzz, I have to admit that I had misgivings when it came to partnering you with Shadow Stalker again, but by all indications it seems to be working out better than I ever expected."

Stunned silence met him as he stopped speaking. Both girls were staring at him as if he had grown a second head. He couldn't really blame them; the glowing praise, preceded as it was by the dressing-down of moments before, had to have caught them on the back foot.

"Uh, so what does that mean, uh, sir?" To his mild surprise, it was Shadow Stalker who spoke. He would have bet money that Buzz had told Sophia to stay quiet and let her do the talking.

"Well, for one thing," Renick informed Shadow Stalker, "it means that Clockblocker has put your name up for a commendation. I am inclined to support this. For another, however you're doing it, your partnership seems to be working out well. I _will_ expect a positive report from Mrs Yamada, the next time you see her, but for now I'm going to sign off on this movie date of yours. This time."

Shadow Stalker did not leap out of her chair to hug Buzz, but he suspected that was because she was too stunned to think coherently.

Buzz, on the other hand, had a response ready. "Thank you, sir," she said. "Thank you. A lot." She grinned at Shadow Stalker. "I'll definitely keep an eye on her."

"I'll be expecting you to," Renick told her austerely. "Shadow Stalker, I believe that your leg needs a little time to mend before you'll be able to roller-blade again, but I fully expect you to discuss your issues anyway. Is that clear?"

Recovering from her surprise, Shadow Stalker looked less than pleased at that, but Buzz once again nudged her. "Uh, yes, uh, sir," the probationary Ward replied, a little reluctantly. "We'll do that too."

Renick smiled. "Good. Then we understand each other."

* * *

"Holy crap, how did you even pull that off?" Sophia limped alongside Buzz as they headed down the corridor toward the entrance to the Wards' base. Both had masked up again after leaving Renick's office. "I thought we were grounded for sure."

Buzz shrugged. "Remember how I insisted on telling them about the movies the first time? This meant that Renick already knew about them, so it wasn't just one more surprise for him to handle."

"Yeah, but … shit." Sophia shook her head as she stopped at the retinal scanner. "I'm used to being put on punishment duty, not being told 'sure, you can go on a date'." She leaned over and let the scanner examine her eye. A buzzer sounded; a few moments later, the doors slid aside.

"Well, part of it's gotta be Clockblocker's report," Buzz pointed out. "And there's the man of the hour himself." She moved over to where Clockblocker was chatting with Kid Win at the console. "Hey, Clock."

"Hey, Buzz." He turned to face her. "So how'd it go?"

"It went _great."_ She hugged him. "Thanks for the nice things you said about Shadow Stalker. She totally deserved them."

"Yeah, she did," he replied. "Which is why I said them." He looked over as Sophia approached. "I just want to say, you and me, we never really got along, but I think you and Buzz make a great team. You really stepped up." He held out his hand. "I'll go on patrol with you any time."

Slowly, Sophia shook it. She wasn't sure how she felt about him hugging Buzz – _she's_ _ **my**_ _friend, dammit_ – but it was an overture. "Yeah, thanks," she said awkwardly. "Jumping on that grenade like that, that was kinda badass too."

He shrugged. "I wear a full-body costume for a reason. But it wasn't a great move, because it put me out of the fight for a bit. How's your leg and your shoulder?"

"Eh, had worse." She shrugged, very carefully. "I've been stitched up. Should be fine in a few days."

"Clock was just telling me about the fight," put in Kid Win. "Did you really put a grenade underground?"

"Only thing I could think of doing," Sophia confirmed. "The bastard was handing them out like party favours."

The Tinker nodded at her. "He's scary like that. Good job keeping him off Buzz. Sounds like he really had it in for her."

"Yeah, well, here's hoping he really goes to the Birdcage, like Armsmaster said," Buzz added. "That's something I don't ever want to go through again."

Clockblocker slapped her on the shoulder. "You and me both. It's just a good thing that Shadow Stalker was there too."

And for the first time in a long time, with the three of them looking at her in obvious approval, Sophia found herself blushing.

* * *

 **Winslow High School  
Wednesday Morning, April 27, 2011**

* * *

"Hey, Sophia, wait up!"

Sophia looked around to see Emma approaching, with Madison right behind her. _Oh great. She's still pissed about my statement._ A quick glance around showed that Taylor was nowhere in sight - she didn't need _that_ particular can of worms opening itself right now - so she turned to face the redhead. "What do you want, Emma?"

"Geez, what got up _your_ ass?" retorted Emma. "All I did was ask for one little tiny favour on Monday and you just stomped off. And if I didn't know better, I'd think you were avoiding me all yesterday."

 _I was, because I don't know how to handle this situation._ "I wasn't. I was just ... busy." Sophia didn't say any more, because Madison wasn't in on her secret identity.

"Yeah, well, Dad's been looking at the legal side of things for the last couple of days." Emma rolled her eyes, apparently over her upset with Sophia. "I need to let off some steam."

Madison nodded. "Yeah. So, anyone seen Hebert? I've got the urge to go pull a massive prank on her."

 _Shit, that didn't take long._ Sophia shook her head. "No, I don't think so. Not today, anyway."

"What do you mean, not today? She's been getting away from us for _days_ now," Emma protested. "It's like she's got a sixth sense about what we're going to do. We need to get our heads back in the game if we're gonna get her."

Sophia repressed a grimace. _I'm treading a fine line here. If I let Emma know why Buzz is off limits, I risk outing her._ "Listen. I got in the shit a couple days ago, same as you. Big time. Really big time. So they're gonna be watching me extra close."

"What do you mean, got in the shit big time?" piped up Madison. "Who's watching you?"

 _Oh, for fuck's sake. She's not supposed to know._ "Blackwell and the teachers," lied Sophia. "They're on some kind of kick, and I'm in their cross-hairs. If I pull anything at all, I might lose my spot on the track team. Shit, I might even get expelled." _Not that I'd even think of doing anything now. Even if she wasn't my partner, Buzz is way too fucking scary to mess with._

"What did you get caught doing?" insisted Madison. "I didn't hear about anything. You seemed okay on Friday." She tilted her head. "Is this something to do with that thing that's happening with Emma?"

Emma and Sophia glanced at each other. Sophia could see the redhead wondering if their problems were indeed related. "Uh, no," she replied. "They didn't say anything to me about Emma at all. Anyway, can we just drop it?"

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea." Emma seemed to have the idea that Sophia's problems were to do with the Wards, so she was doing her best to cover for Sophia. "Better leave it, Mads."

"Okay, fine." Madison didn't pout, but it was a near thing. "Be that way." She shrugged. "Anyway, there's always after school. Once we're off school grounds, Blackwell can kiss my ass."

"After school sounds fine to me," Emma agreed. "We'll get her before she gets on the bus. What do you think, Sophia?"

Sophia wanted to beat her head against a wall. _After school is when we're meeting Brian for the date. Fuck, were we_ _ **always**_ _so fixated on tormenting Taylor like this?_ " Uh, there's this thing I gotta do. Can't make it, sorry."

Once more, she saw Emma come to the conclusion that it had to do with the Wards. Madison, of course, was oblivious. "For fuck's sake, really? You blew us off on Monday and Tuesday and now today, too. What's going on?"

Sophia gritted her teeth. _Time to be the bully again._ Shoving Madison against the wall, she ignored the shorter girl's shocked expression as she hissed, "What's going on is _none of your fucking business._ So just butt out, okay?"

"Sophia -" began Emma.

"Stay out of this, Emma," ordered Sophia. "This is between me and Madison. I -"

"Miss Hess! Let Miss Clements go at once!"

It was Mr Gladly's voice. Sophia sighed as she released her hold on Madison and stepped back. _**Now**_ _they start paying fucking attention._

* * *

End of Part Three


	4. Chapter 4

**Confrontation II: The Reckoning**

* * *

Part Four: When Right … is Wrong … is Right Again

* * *

 _[A/N: This chapter beta-read, and improved upon, by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]_

* * *

 _Well,_ _ **this**_ _is familiar._

Sophia sat in Principal Blackwell's outer office, under the secretary's watchful eye. Outwardly, she was calm; inside, she was feeling a level of irritation that she was finding hard to explain. _I've been in trouble before. Why is this different?_

It took her a few moments to figure it out, not helped by the worry that she would get detention and miss the date with Brian. A more distant worry, but just as real, was that if Piggot decided that she had overstepped her very tenuous boundaries, the rug could be pulled out from under her at any moment.

 _But I was trying to do the_ _ **right**_ _thing, this time!_

That gave her the clue; she was feeling _honest_ indignation, not _righteous_ indignation. She had experienced the latter emotion many times, usually over being disciplined for minor infractions. She'd been _guilty_ of them, no doubt, but she had never considered that the crime really merited the punishment.

This time, she had definitely committed the crime, but it had been in a good cause, as opposed to the half-assed justifications she had used to convince herself that she was still a hero. _Is this what they call irony? Well, if it is, it sucks. Big time._

The door to the outer office opened, and Kirsten Bright stepped through. The look she sent Sophia didn't make the girl feel any more confident about matters. Walking past her to the desk, Kirsten had a quiet word with the secretary, then came over to where Sophia sat.

Sophia tried to work this out. _I didn't call her._ "Did Taylor call you?" she asked quietly.

Kirsten looked down at her, lips compressed slightly. "No. The principal did."

"Ah. Right. Listen, it's not what it looks like."

"Really?" Kirsten sat down beside her, so that she could lower her voice to a mere whisper. "I nearly lost my job the _first_ time when the Director found out the _full_ extent of what you'd been getting up to before I did. I'm not going to risk that again. So I told Blackwell to call me any time you acted out in the _slightest."_

"So you can get on top of things, right?" But the moment the words left her lips, Sophia knew that her guess had been incorrect.

"So that by the time Piggot gets on to me, I have a full accounting of your misdeeds, and a series of recommendations to be carried out. Up to and including having you put on trial as an adult." The woman's tone was deadly serious, for all that it was barely audible.

"But -" There was something wrong with that setup. For one thing, it implied that -

"Make no mistake, Sophia," Kirsten stated flatly. "I am not your friend. I am not on your side. I am not going to stick my neck out _one sixteenth of an inch_ to save you from your richly deserved fate. _You_ were supposed to be a reforming vigilante, in the process of becoming a well-regarded Ward, while _I_ was supposed to check in every now and again, and make sure that you were responding well to your new situation. Except that _somewhere_ along the line, the school decided that 'give her leeway as a Ward' meant 'sweep everything under the carpet'. So I never looked too hard at what was going on. Well, more fool me."

Her lips twisted bitterly. "So I decided to make sure that just _one_ foot out of line meant that you'd get what you deserved. And surprise surprise. You put a foot out of line."

Sophia shook her head. "Like fuck I did."

Kirsten's head jolted back, as if Sophia had slapped her. "What do you mean? Principal Blackwell rang me and said you were caught shoving another girl against the wall."

"Yeah, and I bet she _didn't_ say that Madison was one of the girls who used to help me bully Taylor."

From the look in Kirsten's eyes, Sophia knew she'd scored a hit.

Still, the woman came back strongly. "That still doesn't excuse you bullying _her."_

Sophia rolled her eyes. "Emma and Madison don't know about Taylor being in the Wards. They tried to get me in on a prank. I tried to tell them no, Madison wouldn't back off, so I was in the middle of convincing her that it was a bad idea when Gladly walked around the corner." She stopped talking, unwilling to give any more details. _No need to bring my date with Brian into this._

Kirsten looked confused, then puzzled, then enlightened as the penny finally dropped. "You were trying to _stop_ them from bullying Taylor …?"

"Well, _duh._ It's not like I can tell them that she's my new best friend without raising a whole lot of new questions about the situation. Like, how and why and where. So I just said no. But Madison wouldn't take that for an answer."

"You could've told a teacher," Kirsten countered. "Or the principal. Not taken matters into your own hands."

 _For fuck's sake. You do know where we are, right?_ "This is _Winslow._ I snitch, it'll be around the school before lunch. And that'll out me harder than anything else. Sophia Hess as a snitch? Everyone and his dog will _know_ that something's up. And there's one other thing."

"Ms Bright, Miss Hess, Principal Blackwell will see you now," announced the secretary.

Kirsten turned and held up a finger. "Sixty seconds," she said, before returning her attention to Sophia. "Talk fast."

"Emma's pissed at the statement I made," Sophia said rapidly. "She wants to get Taylor too. She's gonna start connecting the dots pretty soon. Either her and Madison get made to back the fuck off, or the PRT's not gonna like what happens next. Just saying."

"Is that a threat of some sort?" Kirsten's eyes narrowed.

 _Your intimidation needs work._ "Fuck, _no._ Just letting you know that unless we do something _now,_ they'll keep trying to get at Taylor. And with her powers, if they really manage to get her mad …" She shuddered at the thought. "I am _not_ taking responsibility for that if it happens. Which means they need to stop or _be_ stopped. For their own good."

Kirsten grimaced. "Okay, then. Let's go in, and see if we can't sort out some _more_ of your fallout."

"Hey," protested Sophia as she got up. "This is _not_ my fucking fault."

"You started it," Kirsten said. "If it wasn't for you, would _any_ of this be happening?"

Sophia put as much emphasis into her words as she could without actually raising her voice. _"But I'm trying to fix it!"_

Her handler's tone was markedly unsympathetic. "That's the only thing saving your ass right now."

* * *

Principal Blackwell's tone was chilly. "Sit down."

Sophia eyed the woman unfavourably as she took a seat. The woman had a hairstyle like Piggot's on a build that was, if anything, skinnier than Taylor's. _If anyone can rock the skinny look, it'll be Taylor. Give her a few years and a little more confidence, and she'll have the guys begging for dates. This bitch … not so much._

On a less personal note, Sophia also held Blackwell largely responsible for the current situation. _If she'd put her foot down when Emma and me were running roughshod over Taylor, all this shit would never have happened._

Kirsten took the initiative. "Principal Blackwell," she said, "why am I here?"

 _I like it. Putting her on the back foot straight away._

Blackwell stared at the woman. "You told me to call you. If Sophia Hess acted out in _any way,_ you said. You repeated it half a dozen times." She pointed at Sophia, making the girl want to grab the offending digit and snap it. "She acted out. I called you."

Leaning back in her chair, Kirsten folded her arms. "And what form did this 'acting out' take?"

The principal looked confused. "I _told_ you. She was seen shoving another girl up against the wall. I took action immediately. She was separated from the student body and I called you. Just as you instructed me."

"And the girl she was shoving around," Kirsten said. "Did you happen to get her name?"

"Oh, come _on,"_ snapped Blackwell. "You _personally_ gave me a twenty-minute lecture on how it didn't matter _who_ we caught her bullying. Does it _matter?"_

"Yes, actually, it does matter." Kirsten was studying her fingernails now. She looked up at Blackwell. "If you'd bothered to do the slightest level of due diligence, or even _asked Sophia herself_ why she was doing it, you would've learned some important facts, and maybe even spared me a trip across town while you were at it."

"What it God's name does it matter _who_ she was shoving around?" said the principal. "Bullying is bullying! You yelled that at me so many times it's tattooed on my eardrums."

"Well, for instance," Kirsten said, "it might matter if the girl in question was one Madison Clements. One of Sophia's former partners in crime. Who, along with Emma Barnes, was attempting to solicit Sophia's aid to _continue_ with her bullying campaign against Taylor Hebert." She rested her fingertips against her chin and gazed placidly at Blackwell. "Do you think it might matter _then?"_

Blackwell's eyes flicked from Kirsten to Sophia. "Is this true?" she demanded of the teenager.

"Well, _yeah,"_ Sophia said derisively. _You fucking moron._

"Why didn't you _tell_ us then?" Blackwell looked as though she were about to start chewing the scenery.

"I tried. You told me to shut up." Sophia did her best to keep the indignation out of her voice. _It would sound too much like whining._

"Can anyone else back your story up?"

Sophia managed to refrain from laughing in Blackwell's face, but it was a near thing. "They were talking about _bullying someone._ Not something you casually talk about in the middle of the corridor. No, I've got no witnesses. Except for Madison and Emma. Good luck getting _them_ to incriminate themselves."

A tiny germ of an idea unfolded in her mind about then. She wasn't sure where it was going, so she let it be.

"Well, unfortunately, if you've got nobody to back up your side of things, then I'm just going to have to treat it as a bullying incident," Blackwell decided. "Mr Gladly saw you do it, after all."

"Oh, for _fuck's_ sake," Sophia snapped. "Why the hell would I attack someone that I helped bully someone _else_ with? It doesn't make sense."

"It would if you wanted _someone_ to bully, and you didn't care who," Blackwell pointed out. "And if you don't tone down your language _right now,_ I'll be adding that on top of the rest of it."

 _So this is how Blackwell shut Taylor down so often,_ Sophia realised. _And all this time, I thought we were just that good at staying out of trouble. It was Blackwell all the time. She's just that good at not giving a shit who's actually in the wrong, so long as she doesn't have to exert herself._

"I actually find that hard to believe," Kirsten said bluntly. "Sophia has her issues, but she's never attacked someone she considered a friend."

The idea opened up fully, and Sophia saw the whole thing. It was a way out, but it would not be without its costs.

"All the same," Blackwell said, "if you've got no proof -"

 _Fuck it. Let's go for gold._ "Actually, I've got something for you," Sophia interrupted her. "Bring Emma Barnes and Madison Clements in here. We'll sort this out once and for all."

"I'm not sure -" began Blackwell.

"I am," Kirsten snapped. "If she says they're involved, then they're involved. And your Mr Gladly, too. So he can verify that they were there."

"I really don't think -" Blackwell tried again.

Kirsten stood up. "You either do this, or I place a phone call to Director Piggot explaining exactly how obstructive you're being, and we start expediting the transfer of _both_ Wards to Arcadia."

That hit home, hard. Sophia had known that having a Ward in the school meant extra funding, but she wasn't sure how much. Looking at Blackwell now, she decided that there had to be a few zeroes involved.

"Okay, fine," the principal huffed. "I'll get it done."

"Good." Kirsten sat down again. "No time like the present."

Blackwell gave her an irritated look. Kirsten didn't seem to notice, or perhaps she just didn't care.

* * *

Emma was the first to enter the office, followed by Mr Gladly. Madison trailed along behind.

"What's going on here?" Predictably, Emma went on the attack straight away, once she saw Sophia. _Especially_ once she saw Kirsten. That had to have rung all sorts of alarm bells in her head. "Where's my dad?"

"Your father isn't required at this meeting," Blackwell said wearily. "You aren't being accused of anything." She glanced at Kirsten. "Is she?"

Sophia shook her head, causing Blackwell's irritated expression to crank itself up a notch. "Nope. I just want to deliver a message. But first; Mr Gladly. Can you confirm that she's the one I was shoving around in the halls, earlier? And that she was there too?" She pointed at Madison and Emma in turn.

Gladly looked at Sophia, then at the principal. Blackwell glowered at the Ward, then reluctantly nodded. "Answer the question."

"Well, yeah," he said. "They were both there. Sophia was shoving Madison against the wall pretty hard."

From the look on the principal's face, she'd been hoping he would deny it. "Thank you, Mr Gladly. You may go."

With one confused look over his shoulder, the World Affairs teacher let himself out. Sophia had heard that he was easy to distract from what they'd do to Taylor, but right now she kind of wished that he'd been a hardass about the whole thing. _If he had, I might not be sitting here right now._

"What's this about?" asked Emma again.

Sophia took a deep breath. "Emma. Everyone here knows that we all used to bully Taylor Hebert. That finishes now. It's over. It's done. It never happens again. Got it?"

Madison's eyes went wide. Emma stared at Sophia, but recovered fast. "I've got no idea what you're talking about." She looked at Blackwell. "I'd like to go back -"

 _Fine, hardball it is._ "Emma. I'm the one who made the statement to the police about what we used to do to Taylor. The one they're giving you a hard time about. It was _me._ I was _there._ I saw _everything._ I _helped_ you. Now stop playing dumb and understand this. It. Is. Done."

"What the _fuck?"_ burst out Madison. _"You_ made that statement? Why the fuck did you do that?"

 _Wow, cute little Madison thinks she can swear. Who knew?_ Sophia was actually kind of amused at that.

Emma turned on the petite girl. "Mads, _shut up,"_ she hissed. Standing up, she returned her attention to Blackwell. "I'm not going to sit here and be accused unless my dad's here as well."

"I'm not accusing you of _shit,"_ Sophia snapped. "I _know_ you did it. _They_ know you did it. But everything you did is already in the statement. _That's_ being dealt with. What I'm saying is, _quit it._ I'm _this close_ to going to juvey as it is." She held up her hand with thumb and forefinger a hair apart. "And if _anything_ happens to Hebert, it splashes back on me. And if _that_ happens, I'll know who's really to blame."

"Sophia, we're _friends,"_ Emma said, trying for a sweet tone. "I'm sure you don't mean that. I'd _hate_ for your _social worker_ there to hear some of the rumours that might get out and about …"

"Already told her," Sophia retorted.

She blinked, taken properly aback for the first time that she'd entered the room. "What? The guy on the roof …?"

Sophia wanted to grimace. Once, not long after she had met Emma, she'd taken the other girl out on patrol. In order to impress Emma, she had tried to pull a move with a Merchants thug that involved dangling him off a roof to get answers. It had gone wrong, spectacularly so.

"She told me," Kirsten confirmed. "And the rest of it."

"Wait, what guy on what roof?" asked Madison.

Kirsten and Sophia spoke at the same time. "You don't need to know." Sophia looked back to Emma. "That's it. It's really simple. Leave Taylor Hebert alone. Got it?"

Emma rolled her eyes. "Well, I don't even know what you're going on about. I've never done anything to her _anyway,_ so leaving her alone's gonna be real easy."

"Good," Sophia said flatly. "Make sure you remember it." She was tempted to add _I know where you live,_ but she had a suspicion that both Kirsten and Blackwell might object.

As it was, it looked like Emma already had that in mind; the redhead had paled slightly. "Can we go now?" she asked, not quite meekly, but with far less of the defiance that she'd had when she entered the office.

"You can," agreed Blackwell. "Go straight back to class."

Sophia wanted to add _and don't tell anyone what happened,_ but she suspected that this might make them _more_ likely to talk about it. As it was, she figured she had a fifty-fifty chance that they'd stay quiet.

 _I guess I'm gonna have to live with those odds._

The door closed behind the two girls, and Kirsten looked at Blackwell. "I'm satisfied. Are you?"

Blackwell gave her an irritated look. "If I say yes, will you get out of my office?"

Kirsten wasn't finished. "And Sophia doesn't get in trouble?"

Sophia blinked. _Holy shit, she's actually backing me up._

The expression on the principal's face suggested that she'd been sucking on a whole _crate_ full of lemons. "This time. She's free to go."

 _And don't you fucking forget it._

The temptation to give Blackwell the finger on the way out the door was very strong, but Sophia managed to resist the impulse.

* * *

They paused outside the outer office. Kirsten turned to Sophia. "You were in the right this time, but don't -" She stopped as her phone rang. Frowning, she dug it out of her pocket and answered it. "Kirsten Bright here. Oh – hello, Director."

On the verge of walking off, Sophia stopped and turned. _If Piggy's calling Kirsten, then this is some kind of important._

"Yes – yes, the matter was resolved. No, she's not in trouble. She was trying to – oh, you already know? How -? Oh, _she_ called you?"

For a moment, Sophia wondered who 'she' was, until she saw several flies performing an intricate mid-air ballet in front of her face. _Taylor. Duh._

It took her a moment to realise that she'd automatically assumed that Taylor would actually defend her and not try to screw her over. For all that she was expecting it, it still gave her a weird feeling. _Someone's actually on my side in all this._ She wasn't including Kirsten; the 'social worker' had been willing to throw her to the wolves until Sophia got a word in edgewise.

Kirsten finished the call, then put her phone away. "That was … odd."

"Taylor called your boss?" Sophia grinned; she loved it when she guessed right.

"Well, yes." Kirsten frowned. "She apparently saw what was happening and made the call. Just to let the Director know that something was going on."

Sophia would have bet that there was more to it, but she decided not to push it. This time. "So I'm not in trouble?"

"It appears not." Kirsten's voice was dry. "But let's try not to have a repeat performance any time soon, shall we?"

Sophia gave her a direct look. "You do your job, I'll do mine."

Now it was Kirsten who looked as though she'd bitten into something sour. "I suppose that's the best I can hope for."

* * *

 **Taylor**

* * *

"Hey." As Sophia made room on the bus seat for me, I slid in beside her.

"Hey yourself," she replied with a crooked grin. "I heard what you did for me."

"Moi?" I acted surprised. "I didn't do anything. Okay, I might've made a phone call, but that was totally innocent."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Innocent. I guess I had it handled, but yeah, it was appreciated anyway. Just in case _someone_ got the wrong idea."

"So is it all settled?" I asked, digging in my backpack.

"For now. Hopefully." She sighed. "I had to tell Emma about the statement so she'd get off your fucking back. I was hoping not to have to go there."

"Let me guess," I said, handing her the tracking bracelet. "She said she knew nothing about anything?"

Lifting her foot on to the seat, she pulled up her jeans leg. I leaned forward to make sure nobody saw as she snapped the bracelet on and pulled the jeans down again. "To hear her say it, she was pure as the driven snow. Oh, and then she threatened me with that other shit. Thanks for that, by the way. I was able to look her in the eye and tell her to fuck off."

I gave her a halfway grin. "That's why it's called damage control. How did Blackwell take it?"

Sophia grimaced. "Didn't want to know about my side of it. Thank fuck I was able to talk Kirsten around."

I nodded. "That's good. So, you ready to talk some more about our issues?"

She wrinkled her nose. "No. Can I stop you?"

I grinned. "Nope."

* * *

I looked at her with concern. "You didn't have to wear the skates, you know."

She continued to struggle along with the roller-blades. "You know me. I don't like to lose. Even if it hurts."

This wasn't an argument I was going to win. "So, on the subject of hurting, did you really enjoy hurting me, or was it something that you told yourself that you should be enjoying?"

I skated in an arc around Sophia while I waited for the answer. The dark-skinned girl, still not all that steady on her own roller-blades, concentrated on staying upright.

"I guess … hurting you wasn't the point, but it was something that happened along the way." She paused for a moment.

"A means to an end?" I suggested.

"Yeah, something like that," she said. "The idea was to push you down, make sure you knew where you were supposed to be. If you got hurt because you didn't know your place, tough shit."

"But _why?"_ I swung around and matched my pace to hers. "Why push me down in the first place? Why pick _me?"_

"Emma needed to be strong," she said slowly. "She needed someone to be stronger _than."_

I nodded. "Thus the Nazi shit."

She grimaced. "Yeah, that." I could tell that she still didn't like being compared to being a Nazi. "So when I saw you, and how you let me push you around, I decided that you were too weak, too wimpy to belong in my world. In Emma's world."

"Just like that." My voice was flat.

"Just like that," she agreed. "Of course, I had no idea what I was fucking talking about. I know that _now."_

The aggrieved tone of her voice made me grin. "Let me guess. You've been getting hit in the face by everything you used to do to me?"

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, you have no fucking _idea._ I wish there was a cape who could send people back in time. I'd go back to when I first met you, and I'd kick the shit out of myself. Every time I think I can finally relax, I find out I've sabotaged myself fucking _again."_

"That's gotta suck," I said, almost managing to sound sympathetic. Though it would have been interesting to watch Shadow Stalker from the future beat up her past version.

"Yeah. It does." She huffed a sigh. "Can we change the fucking subject now please?"

I was impressed. She'd managed to swear and say 'please' in the same statement. "Sure. About Madison. What the fuck's up with her?"

"She's a brown-noser who sucks up to whoever's strongest around her," Sophia said promptly. "Pretty sure she's got a crush on Emma."

I blinked. "She's gay?" Not that there was anything _wrong_ about that, but I just hadn't thought it was Madison's style.

Sophia snorted. "Fuck, no. She's just got a crush. That's different – mostly. Though it's still a bit creepy."

I thought about that for a moment. " … yeah, I guess that makes a kind of sense." Then I began to chuckle as something else occurred to me.

She glanced at me warily. "What's so funny?"

"Well, if she sucks up to whoever's strongest … that means she probably had a crush on you, too," I explained with a grin.

Sophia recoiled so hard she almost fell over. "What? Fuck, no!"

I started to laugh, to the point where I had to grab on to the rail to stay upright. Sophia glared at me, apparently unable to see the funny side of things. "It's not funny!" she insisted. "And it's not true anyway."

"Really?" I giggled, wiping tears away from my eyes. "So you've never seen her staring wistfully at you, just hoping that you would notice her for herself …" I started laughing again, hanging on to the rail.

"Shut up," she muttered. "Just shut up."

"That's not a no," I teased her.

She glared at me. "Just _shut up_ , okay?"

"Shut up about what?" It was Brian's voice.

We both looked around; he stood there, wearing a T-shirt and jeans. Beside him, Aisha smirked at us both. She was dressed slightly more modestly than the previous time we'd met, but only by a matter of degree. A _small_ matter of degree.

"Nothing." Sophia answered his question, shooting me a warning look. I answered it with a grin. "Personal stuff. Something that should never see the light of day. _Ever."_

"If you say so." Brian sounded amused. "So, you ready for the date?"

"Wait a minute," interjected his sister. "I wanna hear more about this stuff that should never see the light of day. This sounds interesting."

I rolled toward her slightly. "Well, tell you what. If you don't make yourself _too_ much of a pain, I might give you a hint or two."

Sophia shook her head. "Don't you dare!"

Amused, I looked at her over my glasses. "You've got a date with a hunky guy. I'm keeping Aisha company. Wanna trade?"

She flung up her hands, then grabbed for the rail as her skates threatened to roll from under her. "Fine. You win."

Aisha grinned at me. "I'll take that deal."

Brian helped Sophia to a bench, where she began to take her skates off. I heard him stage-whisper to her, "Don't worry. She's never managed to be good for that long before."

"Always a first time," sang out Aisha.

Sophia groaned and put her face in her hands.

* * *

End of Part Four


	5. Chapter 5

**Confrontation II**

* * *

Part Five: Bonding Time

* * *

 _[A/N: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]_

* * *

 **Sophia**

* * *

The moment Aisha had Sophia's skates on, she slapped Taylor on the shoulder and yelled, "Tag!" Before Taylor could react, the younger girl darted off, cackling gleefully. Sophia watched as Taylor sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. She had to hand it to Taylor; had it been her, Sophia would've been after Aisha without even thinking about it.

Taylor turned to Sophia and Brian. "Will you two be okay for a moment without me?" she asked. Sophia picked up on the subtext without any problem at all; Taylor was asking if she could be trusted to not make a run for it. Not that Taylor _wouldn't_ have bugs on her already, but it was the thought that counted.

"Sure, go ahead." Sophia nodded, meeting Taylor's gaze. _I'm good, right here._ Subtly, she inclined her head toward Brian. _Besides, if I screw up now, I don't get to go on any more dates._ If she hadn't been certain that the original encounter was an accident, she might've wondered if Taylor had set up the whole 'meeting Brian' thing to convince her to behave more. The ever-present threat of being sent back to juvey was a potent stick, but Brian made one hell of a carrot. So to speak.

"Cool. Back in a second." With a clatter of wheels on wood, Taylor zipped off in pursuit of the overly-exuberant Aisha. Sophia watched her weaving through the afternoon crowd with mild envy; it wasn't _fair_ that she was so good on them. Beside her, she heard a sigh that seemed to echo her thoughts.

Turning, she tilted her her head up to look at Brian's expression. "What's the matter? And how've you been, anyway?" She wasn't quite sure how to analyse what she felt about Brian. Up until now, her love life had been essentially non-existent. Between tormenting Taylor, hanging with Emma and Madison in and out of school, tormenting Taylor, her track work, tormenting Taylor and her Wards duties, she hadn't had enough time to notice boys socially, let alone do anything about them.

"I'm fine. I've been good." Unaware of her inner monologue, he pointed with a chuckle as Aisha ducked the wrong way and Taylor tagged her. "It's just nice, you know? To have someone else to help Aisha blow off steam. She's got attention span issues, and … well, problems at home. So I'm glad you brought Taylor along."

"Oh, _really?"_ she asked sarcastically. "Should I have stayed at home then, and just sent her on her own? Because that's what I'm hearing." Raising her eyebrows, she stared up at him challengingly.

"Oh, shit." He sounded a little shocked. "No, no, I didn't mean that at all. It's good to see you. It really is. You look wonderful. I was just saying that, because I can't _not_ bring Aisha along, I'm glad that you let Taylor come with you, so we could have our date without having to worry about my bratty little sister spoiling it for us." His expression was hopeful as he finished his spiel.

She decided to award him bonus points for trying, though it was darkly amusing that he had zero idea as to who had allowed whom to come along. And she could definitely stand to hear more about how wonderful she looked. Those sort of compliments usually went to Emma, not her. Leaning up, she kissed him on the cheek. "Nice save, big boy," she murmured. "If you keep it up, I might have to take you seriously."

He looked a little taken aback, but she wasn't sure whether it was for the kiss or the comment. Either way was good; she decided she like having him off-guard. She got the nicest compliments that way. Linking her arm through his, which elicited another startled look, she nodded toward where Taylor was on her way back toward them, with Aisha in hot pursuit. "So, wanna make a start? From what I've seen of Aisha, they'll be at this for a while."

He made an amused sound. "Oh, Aisha'll do this all day, until Taylor pulls her up. I think she's needed a friend like Taylor for the longest time. Someone who's willing to be a little bit silly with her, but who'll pull her up short when it's necessary." Starting off alongside her, he took two steps before looking down at her in concern. "You're limping. Are you okay?"

Silently, Sophia consigned Oni Lee to the darkest depths of the PRT's dungeons. Or secure holdings, whichever worked better. "It's nothing. Just a bit banged up."

He stopped and turned to face her, his expression and tone full of concern. "If you're limping, it's more than 'a bit banged up'. Are you okay? What happened?"

She tried not to grimace in annoyance. The date had barely started, and she didn't want it to go downhill like this. He was obviously concerned for her welfare, which made her feel good. But he wasn't going to let this go, which made her not so thrilled. _Goddamn it, why couldn't he be as oblivious as Clockblocker or Kid Win?_ "It's nothing, really. I—"

Taylor skidded to a halt next to them, an irrepressible grin on her face and her eyes alight with amusement. "Hey, guys. Everything okay?"

"Sophia's limping," Brian said without taking his eyes from Sophia's face. "I was just wondering who I was going to have to punch the crap out of for it."

 _Oh, man. Now I can't even be pissed with him about this. Why couldn't I have met a guy like this a year ago?_

"Oh, that's easy," Taylor said immediately. "I was getting picked on by this ABB guy and his buddies, and Sophia objected kinda strenuously. You should've seen her. She was _badass_. I mean, I helped where I could, but she did most of it. Left them wondering what the hell hit them. They got arrested and everything." She beamed at Sophia, who blinked a few times. Whatever Taylor had been about to say, she hadn't expected _that._

"Uh, yeah," she said, in response to Brian's questioning look. "That's basically what happened." _Except that it was Oni Lee, not some random guys, and he was trying to kill her … huh. The rest of it's basically true. Never knew Taylor could spin a line like that._ Her respect for the bug controller went up another couple of notches.

"Holy shit!" crowed Aisha, who'd been trying to sneak up on Taylor and failing. "That's awesome. Sophia, you're now officially allowed to date Brian. High-five, sister!" She held up her palm expectantly.

Feeling bemused, Sophia gave her the expected high-five. "So wait, what's been going on before this point if you're only just now giving permission?"

Aisha lifted her chin and made a throw-away gesture. "Oh, that was just a trial period. You had a certain amount of time to convince me that you're worth letting Bri date you. Otherwise, not a chance in hell."

Brian frowned, staring at his sister. "Seriously, Aish. As the older brother, I get to vet _your_ dates, not the other way around."

"Pfft, as if," Aisha stated dismissively. "You're a guy. Guys got no judgement in stuff like this. There's any number of psycho bitches around Brockton Bay. I'd be, uh, what's the word? Something to do with duty? Not doin' it right?"

"Neglecting?" offered Taylor, her mouth quirking with suppressed laughter.

"Yeah, that's the one. I'd be neglecting my sisterly duty if I didn't check out your dates and make sure they aren't about to rip your heart out and stomp all over it." Aisha blithely gestured toward Sophia. "But hey, she passes. You can date her. See what a good sister I am?"

Brian shook his head slowly, but Sophia thought she caught the hint of a grin on his face. "Aisha, I can tell that we're gonna need to have a long talk about boundaries sometime. But not right now. Right now, I want to get back to the date." He held out his arm to Sophia. "Shall we go?"

An unaccustomed grin spread itself over Sophia's face as she took the offered arm. "Let's do this thing."

* * *

 **Taylor**

* * *

"Fuck those ABB assholes, am I right?" Aisha wasn't dashing around as madly as before; she and I were paralleling Sophia and Brian as they strolled along the Boardwalk. "I heard Oni Lee got taken down yesterday, so they're all out of capes now."

"Yeah, I heard that too," I agreed, impressed that Aisha was so well-informed about gang events. "Maybe now the cops can roll up the regular gang members." I didn't really think that they'd hold out for long in Brockton Bay without Lung and his cape minions to back them up, but a little assistance from the BBPD surely couldn't hurt. "So what did Brian decide to go see this time?"

Aisha shrugged elaborately, then glanced over at where Sophia and Brian were deep in conversation. "I got zero fuckin' idea. But I'm glad Soph didn't get scared off the first time. Bri doesn't get to meet many girls. I can't even remember the last time he went on _one_ date, let alone a second one."

I stared at her, then over at Brian's tall manly figure. Sophia wasn't short, but next to him she looked positively petite. "You have to be shitting me," I said slowly. "Why is he not fending off girls with a stick?"

She looked briefly uncomfortable. "Well, he's trynna fix my home situation, and there's the work he's got. I mean, he knows other girls from work, but they aren't his type and he isn't theirs. And outside of work, he's too busy with his other shit."

"Damn," I muttered, then looked away from him before he caught me staring. "So, uh, does that mean he's likely to lose interest in her?" I'd asked the question in concern that if he dropped Sophia, I'd have that emotional shit to deal with along with all the rest of it, but a moment later I realised how it sounded. "I mean, is he likely to break her heart?" Truth be told, I wouldn't have _minded_ him paying that sort of attention to me, but not at Sophia's expense.

After a sharp glance at me, Aisha seemed to accept that I was asking the question in genuine concern for Sophia's well-being. "Nah, I can't see it. When Bri takes something up, he does it full-on. Now, if she breaks _his_ heart, I'mma carve her liver out with a rusty spoon. Just saying." Her tone was totally serious, for all that she looked ludicrously adorable making the threat.

"Don't have to worry about that," I assured her. "Sophia's very dedicated about things. Even if Brian was a bad idea for her, I'd still have a hell of a time convincing her of that. And just between you and me, I don't think so. I mean, shit, she's smiled more often since she met him than in all the time I've known her." Smiled in a nice way, I meant. Not in a bitchy way. Of course, her bitchy smile quotient was effectively zero since I'd smacked her upside the head with my baton. Funny how that worked.

Aisha raised her eyebrows at that. "Huh. You really are looking out for her, aren't you? What'd she do, sacrifice herself for you in a previous life or something? Or were you two bumping uglies before she met Brian?"

"No!" I protested. "We're just friends. I mean, there's nothing _wrong_ with that, but no. That's not us. We're just … we've been through a lot together. It's complicated." I tried to even visualise me and Sophia in that sort of relationship, and my brain came to a screeching halt. _Not just nope, but_ _ **hell**_ _nope._ Even if either of us was that way inclined, there was way too much baggage between us to make it work.

"Woo!" she cackled as she sat down on a bench to take off her skates. By way of explanation, she pointed at a side-street that led off the Boardwalk. "The movie place is that way. Shortcut."

"Oh." I sat beside her and started unlacing my skates too. "Anyway, 'woo'? What's with that? I didn't say anything weird, did I?"

She grinned at me. "There's something you're not telling me, isn't there? I can tell. I mean, apart from the way you're so goddamn nobly holding back from trynna grab Brian all for yourself. There's _some_ sorta stuff goin' on between you and Soph, isn't there? What is it? You guys exes?"

"You just don't give up, do you?" I sighed. "No, Sophia and I have never been in a relationship. It's different from that. And a lot more complicated than I'm willing to try to explain right now." Taking my pack off, I started stowing my skates inside.

"I notice you didn't say anything about you and Brian," she said slyly as she handed me Sophia's skates as well. She didn't say any more, but I got the distinct impression that she was deriving way too much amusement from the situation.

My face started getting hot. "Pretty sure it's not something we should be talking about."

" _What's_ not something we should be talking about?" It was Brian's voice, sounding amused. Aisha and I turned to watch him approach with Sophia. They were holding hands now, as opposed to just having their arms linked together.

"What Sophia and I were talking about earlier," I said hastily. "Sophia, wanna take your skates back?" Standing up, I offered them to her.

She wrinkled her nose as she took them. "No, but I guess I should," she admitted. Letting go of Brian's hand, she shrugged her backpack off and started to shove the skates inside.

"You really don't like rollerblading, do you?" Brian asked her, assisting her by holding the pack open. "I mean, Taylor's pretty good, but you're struggling with it. Why not just give it up? I mean, nobody's gonna think any worse of you for it. You've given it an honest try."

Sophia glanced briefly at me, and I could see the struggle in her eyes. What he was saying was perfectly logical, but he didn't know about our 'homework' with Mrs Yamada. The problem was, how was she to tell him about the therapy without either exposing the whole deal or digging ourselves deeper into lies?

"It's real simple," she said as we started down the side-street. "I don't like to lose. Taylor wanted to take up rollerblading, so I took it up too. So what if I _am_ shit at it? That just means I gotta try harder. Just because she's done it before and I haven't doesn't mean I can't learn how. I _am_ gonna get good at it, just so someday I can say 'fuck you' to these skates before I chuck 'em in the ocean or something."

"Huh." Brian shook his head. "Well, you're a lot more stubborn than me, I'll say that much."

Aisha snorted audibly, her expression the picture of sheer disbelief. I looked at her with interest; she rolled her eyes toward her brother, then shook her head.

Having caught the byplay as Aisha had probably intended, Brian turned toward her. "Shush, you."

She crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue at him. Sophia smirked at her antics, but I wasn't smiling any more. As a matter of course, I had bugs on everyone within a block. Not only was it good practice at using my powers—and figuring out stuff about people from a distance—but it kept me apprised of potential unwelcome surprises. Of which there were several nearby.

I didn't have a huge swarm ready to hit them with, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to tip my hand like that anyway. The flies and other bugs I had on them indicated that they were armed with nothing more lethal than knives and short lengths of pipe. I counted six overall, with two of them significantly shorter and lighter than the others. That, and their clothing, indicated to me that those two were women.

I had useful information, but my trouble was that I didn't know how to warn Sophia without tipping off Brian and Aisha that we were capes. I could've just said that going this way was a bad idea, but if I had no good reason for doing so, it would just look and sound strange. Which left option C: spring the trap, then hold them off long enough for Brian and Aisha to get away. I had no doubt that Sophia and I could disengage afterward, given subtle uses of our powers, but there was no sense in not stacking the deck. Moving casually, I reached into my pocket and palmed my pepper spray canister. I'd been carrying one ever since Dad became concerned at my early-morning runs; it hadn't done me so well against Lung, but these guys weren't Lung.

Sophia eyed me suspiciously, then glanced around, eyes darting from point to point. Our would-be muggers were just drifting into the side-street from alleys and doorways, closing in to surround us. As yet, they weren't showing actual intent, but that was just a facade. Flies sitting on their pulse points were registering increased heart rates, and hands in pockets were clutching weapons. These guys meant business.

"Uh, guys," Sophia said. "Maybe this isn't the best place—"

She was interrupted by the sound of a switchblade clicking into place. "Actually, yeah, it is." The speaker was a bit taller than the other muggers, but he looked no less dishevelled. He also had the habit of waving his blade in a lazy figure-eight as he talked.

"Oh, shit." That was Brian, his voice barely a murmur, as he looked around. The six were well spread out, holding their weapons openly now. "Girls, when I say run, you run, got it?"

 _Jesus_ _ **Christ**_ _._ I barely held back from rolling my eyes. _Save me from white knights._ I had a lot of respect for Brian, but he was treating us as people who needed to be _saved._

"Not fuckin' likely," Sophia murmured. "We leave you, they'll dogpile you for sure."

Brian's voice was agonised. "Yeah, but—"

"Stop fuckin' talking!" The leader of the bunch of muggers stomped forward. Aisha and I were on his side; I stepped in front of her, my left shoulder toward him. He grabbed me by the upper arm and yanked at me to get me away from the group. That was fine with me; I brought my right hand up across my body and gave him a dose of pepper-spray in the face from about one foot away. At the same time, a tiny swarm of flies swept between him and me, collecting all the droplets of spray that might otherwise have reached my face. They were there and gone in an instant, too fast for anyone but me to notice.

As he screamed and let my arm go to claw at his face, I slipped the pack off my shoulder and swung it at arms' length; the weight of my skates slammed into the middle of his chest, knocking him off balance and on to his ass. The muggers stared and a couple stepped back, but the others came forward, raising their weapons. As a continuation of my action, I sent a stream of pepper-spray at the next closest one, who backpedalled hastily. He didn't get as concentrated a dose as the first one had, but it was enough to make him cough and choke and rub at his eyes.

Which was what I wanted. "Aisha!" I snapped. "Go! Get help!" With my free hand, I pointed down the side-street, through the gap I'd just opened up. Needing no more urging than that, she took off down the street like a greyhound out of the gate. I doubted very much that she could bring back help in time to affect the fight but that had never been my intention. Getting her out of the middle of the fight was the best thing for everyone; now we could concentrate on kicking ass.

Behind me, Brian slipped a knife slash and kicked one of his opponents viciously under the kneecap. Sophia was up against a guy with a pipe and a girl with a knife; even without being able to access her powers, she was able to duck aside from a swing with the pipe and shove that guy into the girl. I reached into a side pocket of the pack and pulled out the same extendible baton that I'd smacked Sophia upside the head with, once upon a time. Dropping the pack, I flicked the baton out and moved to intercept Brian's other opponent from coming up behind him. At the same time, I kept track of where Aisha was.

Mentally, I swore. The second guy I'd gotten had decided to go after her; while his eyes were obviously troubling him, I hadn't sprayed him hard enough to put him down. I gathered the bunch of bees I'd been able to gather and sent them arrowing down after him. Raising my arm, I brought the baton down on the shoulder of Brian's second opponent. I was pretty sure I hadn't broken anything major, but she let out a screech of pain and dropped her knife. For good measure, I kicked her behind the knee to put her on the ground.

And just in time, too; Sophia's two opponents were bigger than her and had greater reach, and she wasn't moving as lithely as normal, due to the injuries Oni Lee had inflicted on her. "I got this one!" I yelled at Brian, stomping on the hand of the woman I'd just put down. Moving up alongside Brian, I confronted the guy he'd kicked under the kneecap, who was limping forward and pointing a knife at me. Aisha had stopped momentarily to look back before realising that the guy was still after her; now she was running again, but he'd closed the lead considerably.

I had to save her in a way that looked natural. When Aisha ran past a bunch of garbage cans, I hoped that she'd push one over to get in his way, but she didn't. However, that gave me an idea. As he came level with the same cans, I brought two swarms into action. One was a bunch of cockroaches, racing out from the cans and across the alley in front of him. He didn't see them, but then, he didn't have to. His foot landed right in the middle of the flat, slippery chitinous bodies, and he skidded, flailing. One arm hit a can, knocking the lid off of it. That was all I needed.

The guy on Sophia had dropped his pipe and grabbed her from behind, while the girl came from in front with obviously murderous intent. Brian ignored the guy that I was facing off to go save Sophia, which was my intent. Sophia managed to fend her off once with a kick, but her injured leg wasn't able to strike as high or with as much force, and the girl realised that quickly. But by the time she did realise it, Brian was there.

I feinted with a kick, then brought the baton down on the guy's knife hand as hard as I could. I was pretty sure that I heard bone crack, and he let out a howl of pain. Even as the knife hit the ground, I was stepping in to hit him again, around the collarbone region. This time, I did hear bone crack, and the asshole lurched backward away from me. Around about the same time, I heard the impact as Brian pile-drove the girl threatening Sophia into the ground.

As Aisha fled from her attacker, help was already on the way. The bees I'd brought in swooped down along the wall of the building, then up between the garbage cans, as if they'd been disturbed by the guy. He was halfway to his feet when the first one stung him, and he promptly forgot all about chasing Aisha. She had the presence of mind to dart to one side and hide behind a dumpster as he ran past with the angry bees chasing him; his pained yelps faded into the distance.

I moved up alongside Brian, baton at the ready. The guy holding Sophia backed up, eyeing us both, holding an arm across Sophia's neck. I could see her seething, just itching to use her power and fade out of his grasp, but unwilling to do it with witnesses.

"Let her go and we might not break too many bones," Brian offered, his entire bearing suggesting that he was willing to break a great many bones if Sophia was hurt. His fists were clenched and he was demonstrating a really good skill at looming.

"Back off!" gasped the guy holding her. "Back off or I'll—ah! Bitch!"

His pained shout came from the fact that Sophia had apparently gotten her second wind; a stamp on the guy's foot coincided with an elbow in the ribs. She twisted in his grip, almost getting free. That 'almost' in this case was enough of an opening for Brian; he stepped in, his fist launching forward like a freight train. Sophia saw it coming and at the last moment she tilted her head sideways, giving his fist just enough room to skim past her neck and impact the guy solidly in the chops.

Her captor staggered back, his grip loosening, and she pulled all the way free. Her elbow smashed back into his throat and put him on the ground for good; he lay there, feebly clutching at his neck and making rasping noises. But he was breathing, so I guessed that would be good enough.

Brian looked around, shaking out his hands and moving from foot to foot, ready to continue the fight. But the fight seemed to be over. In fact, the only ones left were the guy I'd sprayed first and the one Sophia had elbowed. "You okay?" Brian asked Sophia, a little belatedly.

She didn't seem to mind. "Sure. Good hit there. Thanks."

"Hey, not a problem." He reached out and brushed some of her hair back behind her ear. Then he looked around, eyes widening. "Shit! Aisha!"

"Not to worry," I said, pointing. "She's fine." And sure enough, Aisha was making her way back toward us, looking rather pleased with herself.

"Oh, thank God." He turned toward me as I retrieved my pack and slid the baton back into the side pocket. "That was pretty quick thinking there. You came prepared, I guess."

I gave him a half-shrug, pleased at the compliment. "Hey, I live in Brockton Bay."

"And that about says it all. Should we call the cops on 'em?" Sophia's question had several layers to it. I could tell that she didn't want to disrupt the date by securing the muggers and waiting for law enforcement. Nor did she want to have to worry about filling out incident forms once we got back to base. Even talking to the cops in our civilian identities would eventually get back to Director Piggot and Deputy Director Renick, and if we hadn't crossed all the t's and dotted all the i's, they'd be asking us why.

The bottom line was that if we called the cops, the date was a total loss. If we didn't … well, these guys had learned the hard way not to mug people in side streets. And after Sophia had saved my life, I didn't want to pull that shit on her.

"Dunno," I mused as Aisha came up to us. "What do you think, Brian?"

He looked down at the battered and beaten muggers. "Well, given that they're not really gonna give us any more trouble, is there any real reason to bother the cops?"

Sophia shrugged. "I can't see one." She looked at him appraisingly. "You handled yourself pretty well there. Sure you aren't one of the Wards in disguise? Aegis, maybe?"

"Hah, you can't talk," he replied in good humour as we continued on our way. "You and Taylor were pretty badass there yourself. Sure _you_ aren't a superhero, Taylor?"

Aisha began to giggle as I posed, flexing what little muscle I had. "Sure," I proclaimed in as deep a voice as I could manage. "I'm Armsmaster, can't you tell." Hamming it up, I looked from side to side suspiciously. "Where's my halberd? Have you seen my halberd?"

As Aisha began to laugh out loud, Brian looked at Sophia. "And I suppose you're Alexandria?"

Grinning, Sophia rolled her eyes. "Well, _duh,"_ she said with heavy sarcasm. "Who else has a body like this one?" She flexed as well. Unlike me, she had curves and muscles both; I looked on with a certain amount of envy. Brian was also looking, but I was pretty sure it wasn't out of envy. Aisha broke off from her cackling to add a wolf-whistle, which started me laughing in turn.

"Which reminds me," Sophia said, stepping right up to Brian. Reaching out, she took hold of his lower jaw between thumb and forefinger. "Next time we're faced with shit like this, you might want to consider that you're not the only one who can kick ass and take names. Got it?"

Brian just stared at her for a long moment; I suspected that Sophia was the first person who'd ever called him out like that. "I, uh, yeah," he agreed. "Sure. Any time."

"Good boy," she purred, a rather predatory smile spreading over her face. Hooking a finger into the front of his shirt, she pulled him down to her level and planted a firm kiss on his lips. "Maybe you _can_ learn after all."

The look of stunned surprise on his face as she let him go was utterly _priceless._ Aisha seemed to think so too, because she burst out laughing. I was grinning all over my face as I gave Sophia a high-five.

"Okay," I smirked, "now that that's over, shall we go see that movie?"

Aisha pumped her fist in the air. "Fuckin' _A."_

* * *

End of Part Five


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